Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Following the Fall of Singapore, Padre Captain William Fleming was reported Missing until early 1943 when a Red Cross message confirmed he was a POW in Thailand. Fleming was married with three children.

Padre William Irving Fleming was one of 34 Chaplains taken POW of Japan after the Fall of Singapore. He left Singapore during 1942 with 'A' Force Burma which was sent to the Burma end of Burma-Thai Railway. This work party was the first to depart Singapore, with 3,000 Australian POWs sailing on three old junk ships. They firstly worked on repairing, extending and making roads at three airfields left by the British at Victoria Point, Tavoy and Ye located on the south west coast of Burma before arriving at the railway sometime after October 1942.

We are unsure which POW Camps Padre Williams was sent to, other than Khonkan 55km Camp - which was a hospital Camp with large numbers of very sick POWs, many of whom suffered with advanced ulcers - mostly to their legs and feet which required amputations. Dr. 'Bertie' Coates was the head MO.

When the railway was completed, we know Padre Williams was sent to Japan with a work party to one of the Fukuoka Camps, from where he was recovered from at the end of the war.

It is not known what conditions he personally faced in the POW Camps. We know mostly the Japanese did not recognise Chaplains and they were subjected to the same neglect, starvation and brutality as the POWs who were not officers.


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