Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

My uncle Cpl John (Gary) Garrett Mellor QX19254 was a POW captured in Singapore by the Japanese in 1942 and was on the Thailand Death March and Hellfire Pass on the Burma Railway. On top of suffering dysentery, beriberi, malaria, tropical ulcers, severe malnutrition and cholera, he was regularly severely beaten often with chisels. He was also tortured both physically and emotionally enduring at least one mock beheading. At one stage he weighed around 25kg and was on the brink of death more than once. He survived the war to testify at the Japanese War Crimes Trials. He rarely talked about his wartime experiences but he was interviewed by the Gold Coast Bulletin in 1983 a couple of years before he passed away. He was a life insurance agent on the Gold Coast. I found it interesting that I never heard him say one bad word against the Japanese but just got on with his life.