Back in May 2025 we held a lively party in the village institute to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe – 8 May). For many families living in Embsay and Eastby in the summer of 1945 however, despite the celebrations in May, the war was far from over as they waited for the return of loved ones. Most Allied soldiers were still required to continue serving – many of them in the Army of Occupation, while many others were still fighting in the Far East – or held prisoner by Japan. VJ Day (Victory over Japan – 15 August) is less well known and less widely commemorated than VE Day.  

Not until 15^th August 1945 did Japan announce its surrender, officially signing the surrender on 2^nd September at Tokyo Bay, aboard the battleship USS Missouri.  The Japanese now know August 15^th as Shusen kinenbi, the “Memorial Day for the End of the War”, or “The day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace.”  (In the USA, VJ Day, also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, is celebrated on 2^nd September).

William Ruddy:

VE Day had meant little toWilliam Ruddy, as he had been in Japanese POW camps for well over 3 years.

William ‘Bill’ Ruddy was the youngest child of Irishman, James Joseph Ruddy alias McNally. James was a railway platelayer, and later a gas stoker for the Council. His wife, Janet Ann (née Scott), was a cotton weaver from Embsay. Their eldest son Henry had been born in Embsay in 1908, daughter Kathleen Mary was born in 1911, and the youngest child, William, in 1915. The family lived at various addresses in Embsay – Elm Tree Square (1911), Main Road, and at West Lane Top (where Bill was born), and Sunny Bank, Pasture Road (1915-27). Bill was 15 years old when James found new employment, and the family moved to Skipton.

War Service:

Bill worked as a general labourer, and was also a member of the Skipton branch of the St John Ambulance Brigade. In August 1936, aged 21, Bill enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps, and served in the UK, then India and Malaya.

In 1940, as a corporal in the 32^nd Company of the RAMC, he was transferred to the newly-built British Military Hospital at Alexandra, just outside Singapore.  Opened in 1940 and staffed by The 32nd Company of the Royal Army Medical Corps, supported by nurses of the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corps, Alexandra Hospital was the largest and best-equipped military hospital in Britain’s “Far East Command”. Built to accommodate 450, by February 1942 there were nearly 1,000 patients, attended by 20 officers and 130 staff.

1942 – The Alexandra Hospital Massacre

Bill was highly likely to have been witness to the infamous and horrific Alexandra Hospital Massacre, the subject of a war crimes tribunal after the war. He was extremely lucky to escape death that day, but was imprisoned by the Japanese for the next 3½ years, forced to work on the construction of the Thailand-Burma railway, known to history as “The Death Railway”. 

In February 1942 Singapore fell to the Japanese army. On the morning of 14^th February, the water and electricity supply to the hospital was cut off. At 1pm, the Japanese attacked with such force that it was designated a war crime by the post-war Tokyo Tribunal. Ignoring the red crosses and white flags of surrender, about 100 Japanse soldiers forced their way in and rampaged through the wards and staff living quarters, shooting or bayoneting about 50 people – staff (including female nurses) and patients – many still in their beds, or even in at least one case, in the operating theatre.

At 3.30pm, 200 of the men were rounded up, tied up into groups of eight and forced to march about ¼ mile – along the railway tracks, past the burning oil tanks nearby, through a drain tunnel under the railway embankment, then to the servants’ quarters. Those who collapsed were bayoneted and left for dead. At the building, still bound together, the men were divided into groups of fifty to seventy and crammed into three small rooms, without ventilation or water, and no space to sit or lie down (in one room there was just enough space to sit down in shifts). Several died during the night from heat stroke, wounds already sustained, suffocation, or dehydration.

At 11.00 the following morning, prisoners were escorted outside in groups of two or three to fetch water. However, their screams soon made it clear that they were being bayoneted. About 100 were executed, before Japanese shelling resumed. The building where the remaining prisoners were being held was struck and damaged, offering an escape out. Some of those fleeing were immediately mown down by machine guns – only about 5 managed to escape entirely. A senior Japanese officer arrived at the hospital at 6.00 pm, ordered the executions and looting to stop, offering his apologies for the massacre. The hospital staff were permitted to start clearing up and resume medical treatment. But on 27th February orders were received to march staff and patients, along with some civilians captured in the city, out to an internment camp at Changai.  From there many were transferred to the work camps.

The ‘Death Railway’:

The Japanese captured over 100,000 British and Commonwealth military personnel. Most were used as forced labour in quarries, ports, mines, quarries, shipyards and factories. About a third of them – mostly those who were captured when Singapore fell in February 1942 – were put to work on what has become known as the “Death Railway”. Hundreds of labour camps were established along the railway line, from where prisoners were forced to work on building the 250-mile long railway, a vital supply line for the Japanese after the American naval victory at the Battle of Midway on June 1942 made sea routes difficult for the Japanese. The railway, under construction from October 1942 until October 1943, became known as the Death Railway. It required over 670 bridges to be built, jungle clearances, cuttings through rocky mountains, and huge earth embankments – most of the the work being done manually with simple hand tools and explosives. 

The famous 1957 film “The Bridge over the River Kwai” has many glaring historical inaccuracies, but it serves to remind us of one of the most horrific aspects of the Second World War – the treatment of Allied POWs (and Asian slave labourers, who are often forgotten) forced to build the Burma-Thailand railway.^[[1]]

Bill Ruddy of Embsay was one of those POWS. At first, he was imprisoned in camp M-1050, otherwise known as the “F” Force work camp, where 7,000 POWS, mostly British and Australians, were sent in April 1943, to work on the railway near the Burma border.

Sometime before November 1944, Bill was transferred to a work camp in the south, Thailand Camp No. 4, one of several work camps around Kanburi (also known as Kanchanaburi), where the headquarters of the Japanese Railway unit was sited. About 20,000 Allied POWs had already been sent to this southern end of the line in Thailand, near where the iconic Tha Markham (‘Bridge over the River Kwai’) was being built. The Japanese military lived amidst the local Thais in the town. Attached to the town there were Base Hospital Camps for Allied POWs, a Working Camp and two Aerodrome Camps. This hospital was established in January 1943 by Lt-Col Malcolm, R.A.M.C. and remained in operation until December 1943. Men were brought back to these camps on stretchers off river barges or the railway. Most were suffering from diseases such as dysentery, malnutrition, beri beri, ulcers, pellagra and malaria. As soon as the sick recovered they were sent to the ‘Fit’ Camp about two miles away located in a jungle clearing.  Conditions here were far better than in the work camps to which they would be forwarded to resume their forced labour.

High Death Rates

The forced labour deployed on the Death Railway included about 60,000 Allied POWs (British, Australian, Dutch and American), and over 200,000 civilians (romusha) conscripted from occupied territories – Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporeans – whose conditions were even worse than those of the Allied POWS. The Japanse kept individual records of the POWs but not of the romusha, so the precise numbers are unknown; many romusha died trying to escape, unable to survive in the jungle.  Hundreds of work camps were established along the route, the majority of them in areas of dense jungles, plagued by malaria-infested mosquitoes, monsoons and sweltering heat. The workers were kept in bamboo huts in atrocious, unhygenic conditions, without medical care. They were worked without any regard to their welfare, many thousands dying of exhaustion, malnutrition, malaria and dehydration. Even a minor scratch from bamboo  shoots could result in foot-long ulcers, leaving the bone exposed and flesh to rot. 

There is some debate over the precise number of POWs put to work on the railway and resulting deaths, but the general consensus is that between 46,000 and 60,000 POWs were conscripted as labourers, and about 25% to 35% of them died – including approximately 7,000 British, over 2,700 Dutch, over 2,800 Australian and 131 American. (This does not, of course, take account of the many survivors who died after the war as a consequence of the toll their treatment had upon their health). According to the post-war ‘Tokyo Tribunal’, the death rate for Western prisoners held by the Japanese was 27.1% – more than seven times higher than that of prisoners of war under either Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. The British POWs suffered the highest number of dead of any Allied group on the Burma-Thailand railway. The Australian commander Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Kappe rather pompously attributed this to the Australians having: “… a more determined will to live, a higher sense of discipline, a particularly high appreciation of the importance of good sanitation, and a more natural adaptability to harsh conditions … [and to] … the splendid and unselfish services rendered by the medical personnel in the Force.”^[[2]]   In reality, however, the death rates (as in percentages) of British and Australians were similar. There were simply greater numbers of British working on the railway than Australians or Dutch POWs. It is not known how many of the Asian civilian labourers died, as the Japanese did not keep records of them, but it is usually estimated at about 90,000. Most were hastily buried alongside the line where they died. 

Despite working up to 100 hours per week with only a day of rest every 11 days of so, minimal food was provided, with maybe only 600 calories per day, especially during the “White Rice Period” (Jan-Oct 1942) – some accounts say this amounted to just ten ounces of rice per day, plus 2oz pork (usually rancid) and 4oz of dried fish per month. Red Cross parcels rarely got through, being stolen by local civilians and Japanese soldiers who were also starving in the latter stages of the war. Malnutrition led to loss of sight, extreme nerve pain, and vulnerability to conditions such as malaria, dysentry and ulcers.

Despite all the suffering and effort, the railway was barely used as it was heavily and repeatedly bombed by the Allies from 1943 onwards.

Bridge over the River Kwai:

Despite the huge success of the film “Bridge over the River Kawi” the experiences of Japanese POWs have tended to be marginalised in Britain’s national ‘war memory’, the film being many people’s only frame of reference.

Although inspired by real events, the 1957 film was based not on historical records, but on a French novel “Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï” by Pierre Boulle (who based his book on his own experiences as a French POW), published in 1952 and translated into English two years later. Such was the success of the 1957 film, which is after all a work of fiction, the Thai government officially re-named the River Maeklaung as ‘River Kwai’ and promoted the bridge at Kanchanaburi as the bridge portrayed in the film. Today the so-called “Bridge over the River Kwai” (still operational as a railway bridge) is a major tourist attraction, with a walkway added to allow tourists to take their ubiquitous selfies. Yet this bridge is constructed of steel, while the film version was built in wood (as were most bridges on the Death Railway).

Liberation

37,500 British servicemen survived, although most had to wait up to five weeks, or longer, before some of the camps, located deep in the jungle, were even found by their liberators. The British POWs were repatriated by the Australian  ‘Repatriation of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees’ organisation (RAPWI). They spent nearly six weeks at sea, travelling via India, before reaching their homes in Great Britain. Many were not returned to England until more than five months after the war in Europe had ended. The euphoria of VE day had passed, and British civilians were mostly preoccupied with post-war social issues. Little attention was given to the former prisoners of Japanese labour camps.

Corporal William Ruddy: liberated 2^nd Sept 1945.

Not until 15^th September 1945 could the Craven Herald report that Bill Ruddy had been released. The news came via a telegram to his father, but sadly Bill’s mother had died the previous February, and was buried in Embsay churchyard. Bill’s health never fully recovered and he had to leave the army in 1948.

By 1949 the electoral registers recorded that William was a civilian again, living with his father in Skipton. He re-trained to update his nursing qualifications, paying his way by working as a bus conductor. On re-qualifying he worked in hospitals at Skipton (Winfield), Leeds (St. James) and finally Meathop (Grange-over-Sands) where he met his future wife.

Having married Gertrude Ryan in 1954, Bill moved to Cumbria, his father having died in December that year (buried alongside his wife in Embsay churchyard). In Cumbria, Bill was an active member of the F.E.P.O.W. organisation for ex-Far East Prisoners of War in the UK. When he died at Dalton-in-Furness, in December 1957, he was just 42 years old. The coroner’s report indicates that despite the War Office’s refusal to release William’s medical records, it was the pathologist’s opinion that his death had been caused by the conditions he endured during his internment as a POW. ^[[3]]

With sincere thanks to Bill Midgley and John Ruddy for kindly providing photographs and family history relating to their relative, William ‘Bill’ Ruddy.

Statistics from Beaatie (2015) and Kratoska (2006):-

Estimated numbers of labourers, deaths, and  burials in the three cemeteries associated with the Thailand-Burma Railway (Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce, 2011):-

Jane Lunnon, Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group

Sources:

ANZAC PORTAL – “Burma-Thailand Railway and Hellfire Pass 1942 to 1943 : The Workers – British” (Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs ; https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/burma-thailand-railway-and-hellfire-pass-1942-1943/workers/british ; accessed July 2025)

BEATTIE, Rod – “The Thailand-Burma Railway” ( 2015, The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, Khanchanaburi; http://www.tbronline.com)

BRIGHAM, Alan – “The Alexandra Hospital Massacre” (2006; BBC – WW2 People’s War – https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/60/a8515460.shtml)

BROOM, John – “The Alexandra Hospital Massacre, 14-15 February 1942” (2020;  https://faithinwartime.wordpress.com/2020/02/15/the-alexandra-hospital-massacre-14-15-february-1942/)

CRAVEN HERALD and Pioneer (14^th September 1945)  

LENNON, John – “Kanchanaburi and the Thai-Burma Railway: disputed narratives in the interpretation of War”  (International Journal of Tourism Cities,  2018, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 140-155; available online at:  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-06-2017-003)

CHONG, Lingziu et. al.  – “Alexandra Hospital: A Legacy Of Care; Celebrating Heritage and Stewardship” (2024; Chapter 2: ‘Hardship and Heroism’;   https://www.ouralexheritage.sg/chapter-2-hardship-and-heroism-part-one,

 including extracts from: “Accounts of the massacre by Japanese invaders, of patients and staff at the British Military Hospital (Alexandra Hospital), Singapore 13-14 February 1942”;

The Wellcome Library Collection – “The Alexandra Outrage, 13 February 1942; Account by Col. W.J. Irwin, Officer Commanding, and Letters from survivors” (RAMC 84, Box 188; Microfilm Number: NAB 375)  

Percival, Arthur A.E.- “Extracts from War Diary of Alexandra Hospital, February 14, 1942”

International Military Tribunal for the Far East [‘The Tokyo Tribunal’] (War Crimes Liaison Office, No. 50568/AG/WCC, May-September 1946)

MACPHERSON, Neil – “Death Railway Movements” (based on details compiled by Capt. D. Nelson, 1945, and printed 1999 by  Lt.Col. T.R. Beaton (Australian Army) for the Hellfire Pass Museum, 1999) 

MAKEPEACE, Clare and PARKES, Meg – “VJ Day: Surviving the horrors of Japan’s WW2 camps” (BBC News website htttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33931660)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES : WO 345/45 – Japanese index cards of Allied Prisoners of War & Internees, 1942-47 

WO 361/1955 – POWs Far East – Thailand POW Camp Names list as of 1^st Nov 1944 – vol ii

WO 361/2196 – Casualties and Missing Personnel 1939-1945 – POWs, Far East: British POWs in Thailand and Saigon as of August 1945 – Nominal Roll

WO 392 – POW Lists 1943-1945; Reference Number: WO 392/26 – British POWs held in Japan or Japanese-occupied Territory

British Army World War II Medal Index Cards, 1939-45.

WO 361/770 – Malaya: massacre by Japanese at Alexandra Hospital Singapore, 14 Feb 1942; Covering Dates: 19/02/1946 to 26/02/1946

WO 361/1416: Far East: Singapore; account of Japanese massacre Alexandra Hospital, Singapore; known survivors and those missing; Covering Date: 01/01/1946 to 31/12/1946

PARTRIDGE, Jeff – “Alexandra Hospital: From British Military to Civilian Institution 1938-1998”  (Chap. 4 – The Alexandra Massacre”; PhD in association with Alexandra Hospital and Singapore Polytechnic; 1998; https://www.postcolonialweb.org/singapore/history/hospital/ah5.html)

QARANC – Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps – “BMH Singapore Alexandra British Military Hospital and Memorial Far East” (https://www.qaranc.co.uk/bmhsingapore.php)

SIMNER, Mark – “Building Burma’s Notorious “Death Railway” (2018, Warfare History Network website: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/building-burmas-notorious-death-railway/; accessed July 2025)

WINSTANLEY, Lt.Col. Peter – “Prisoners of War of the Japanese, 1942-1945” (https://www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/102.html; accessed July 2025) 

Further reading:

BROOM, John – “Faithful in Adversity: The Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War” (2021)

KRATOSKA, Paul H. (ed.) – “The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946; Documents and Selected Writings” (2006)

LAIRD, Rory (ed.) – “From Shanghai to the Burma Railway; the memoirs and letters of Richard Laird, a Japanese Prisoner of War” (2020)

LLOYD, Stuart – “A Bleeding Slaughterhouse: The Outrageous True Story of the Alexandra Hospital Massacres, Singapore, February 1942” (2021)

POLLARD, Dr Tony (ed.) – “Stuart Young: Life on the Death Railway; The memoirs of a British POW” (2013)

WOODAGE, Paul with LLOYD, Stuart [Online YouTube Video Interview]– “The Alexandra Hospital Massacres – Singapore, February 1942” (2022, WW2TV; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtAbQOIa6ns)

WYATT, John & LOWRY, Cecil – “The Alexandra Hospital Massacre” (2008)

[1] Veterans of the ‘Death Railway’ severely criticised the film on its release, as giving a very unfair characterisation of their popular commander Lt. Philip Toosey – as portrayed by Alec Guiness under the character name of Lt. Col. Nicolson – and deplored its implication that British POWs collaborated with their captors. On the contrary they claimed they did their best to sabotage the railway.)

^[2] Quoted in Lionel Wigmore – “The Japanese Thrust” (Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 581)

^[3] Barrow News – 14th March 1958

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