Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Elliott Watt was married to Eileen Preedy and had 2 sons and a daughter. He served in the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion along with his brother inlaw Eric Lincoln Preedy, in early 1942 Elliott & Eric were sent to Singapore and a couple of weeks later were captured by the Japaneese. After a short stint in Changi Prison Elliott then spent the next 3 years as slave labour on the Thai-Burma Railway. In 1943 Eric died from disease, and Elliott would not find out what happened to Eric untill after the war. Elliott spent time in several camps in Thialand such as Kanu II, Tarsau, Changkai, Petchaburi, etc.

One of the main things I remember about the man I knew as uncle Elliott was how happy he always was, alway laughing, always jolly. He would rarely speak of his experiences in captivity, and never in front of women or children, but there was one story about how they used to feed slugs to the chickens. This would kill the chicken and Japaneese would think there was something wrong with them so they let the prisoners eat them instead. Already knowing what killed the chickens, the prisoners knew there was no danger. Just one of many tricks they used to fool their gaurds and survive.