Thame Town Council has produced this special newsletter to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day, by remembering and sharing local stories of those who served and sacrificed during the Second World War.
Join us for the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day
We will be marking Victory in Japan Day with a wreath-laying ceremony on
Friday 15 August 2025 11am
Thame Memorial Gardens
Let’s stand together in remembrance.
Lest we forget.
What is Victory over Japan Day?
VJ Day marks the anniversary of 15 August 1945 when Japan announced its surrender to the Allied forces.
The surrender was met with relief and celebration that after six long years the Second World War was finally over.
While millions took part in parades and street parties, there was also great sadness - the human cost was enormous and many eagerly awaited the safe return of loved ones.
Over 90,000 British troops were casualties in the war against Japan - 30,000 died and 37,500 were held as prisoners of war.
For hundreds of thousands of service personnel from Britain and the Commonwealth, it would take many months to be reunited with loved ones, some of whom they hadn’t seen for more than five years.
Maurice Barton
Remembered by his daughter Mary Moss.
Maurice was born in Thame in 1912, the third of four sons of Kate and Leonard Barton.
In 1939 he joined the Royal Artillery, serving as an anti-aircraft gunner.
Two years later, enroute to the Far East, a train on which he was travelling was de-railed in an ambush and he was taken prisoner. He spent nearly four years in Changi Jail where he experienced starvation and torture and witnessed unimaginable horror.
He only avoided working on the Burma railway due to a severe bout of malaria. He always wondered if the man who sent in his place survived.
On his return to Thame, he took up his old life and never spoke of his ordeal. He showed no bitterness about his experience, once describing his war as being spent “as a guest of the Japanese Emperor”.
A remarkable man who lived through remarkable times and survived. To never tell the tale.
To read more about Maurice Barton visit thamemuseum.org/maurice-barton
Robert Charles Watt Mitchell & Hannah Ruth Smith
Remembered by their niece Denise Haigh.
The two met while Robert was in charge of the ambulances transporting the sick and POWs to the docks and Ruth supervising the embarkation of the sick after the liberation of Singapore. They married on 20th October 1945 in St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore.
Ruth writes a letter home how she was “Struggling to get a wedding cake made” and that she would be “wearing on of my veils as I can’t touch the price of hats”!
Her next letter home that they had “a lovely service in the cathedral – colonels and brigadiers by the score where there…… Also the took several movie shots which were extremely good apparently and they have all been sent direct to India to go on the newsreel”.
The newsreels were also sent to England so she writes to her parents “ I am going to be put on the newsreels there – so watch the flicks and you may see me getting married!”
Robert Charles Watt Mitchell
Robert Charles Watt Mitchell was born on 19th June 1915 in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire.
One of 12 children! He left home at 14 to become a Hammerman and enlisted in the army in 1934. He was captured during WW” and was a POW in Changi.Although he managed to escape at least twice he was recaptured and no doubt suffered on his return to the POW camp – something he never spoke about. He continued his army career until 1959. He died in 1982 in Cambridge Military Hospital Aldershot.
Hannah Ruth Smith
Hannah Ruth Smith was born on 21 October 1918 in Pontycymmer, Glamorganshire. She moved with her parents Albert and Mabel Smith to The Orchard, Great Haseley and then to Milton Common in 1936. She attended Thame Girls Grammer School and trained to be a nurse at University College London. She was a Lieutenant in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nurse Service. She continued her nursing career until retirement age. She died in 1992 on the Isle of Wight.
Jim Garrett
Remembered by his daughter Sue Garrett.
Jim Garrett, originally from a small South Wales mining community, married his wife Ivy on 18 August 1941 and they settled in Ickford. Jim lived there the rest of his life until his death in 1975.
Jim served his country in the RAF during World War II. After training in various parts of the country, including on the Worminghall/Oakley airfield and at Westcott, he was deployed to Northern India (Salbani) with Squadron 356. They were flying in Liberators and, as I understand it, were there to support the army on the ground.
Here is an excerpt from a newspaper dated 23 September 1983:
“Brave flyers’ last enemy – the weather”
Watching the TV documentary of the events leading up to the Dambusters’ raid and the heavy casualties, reminds me of a raid when the percentage of casualties was even higher.
On May 3, 1945, six Liberators took off from Jessore to drop medical supplies on Rangoon Jail, where 6,000 POWs were held by the Japanese.
The jail was in the centre of the town and the drop was to be made from 400 feet to be accurate.
Only one aircraft reached the target and dropped the supplies.
The crew brought back the news that the japs had evacuated Burma – the POWs having spelt out on the roofs of the jail “Fingers Out – Japs Gone”.
Five of the six aircraft were lost and 40 aircrew died.
In the absence of Jap opposition it was thought that the aircraft fell victims to bad weather.
G.B. Cooper, East Cosham, Portsmouth”
Reginald 'Reg' Underwood
Remembered by his son Barry Underwood.
My Father, Reginald ( Reg ) Underwood served in the Royal Navy during World War 2.
He was a Thame resident since birth but moved to Long Crendon upon his marriage.
In the lead up to VJ Day his ship , the Destroyer , HMS Termagant was in action in the Pacific and it was a support ship in Tokyo Bay on the day the Japanese surrender was taken.
Gerald Peters
Remembered by his son Nigel Peters.
Gerald Peters, was a Prisoner of War (FEPOW) working in a chrome blast furnace in Japan.
Gerald was in 560 Company, Royal Engineers. As part of the 18th Division he sailed for what turned out to be Singapore in October 1941.
His was the last convoy in before the surrender on 15 February 1942.
As a POW he worked on the infamous Thai-Burma railway, before being sent on a hell ship to Japan in July 1944 to work at first a sulphuric acid plant, then the blast furnace. He returned to the UK via the Philippines and Canada, arriving back in November 1945.
He lived to the age of 94, and spent the last 6 months of his life at the Bartletts Care Home in Stone.
Though a Cambridgeshire man, during his working life he was responsible for the Spicer-Hadfield stationery factory in Haddenham (long since gone, but there is still a Spicers Yard in the village).
George 'Bill' Williams Krebs
Remembered by his daughter Hilary Dollman.
My father was called up to active service I believe in 1939 or 40 and trained in Edinburgh. He was then posted in India and finally in Burma. As I understand it, he belonged to the 'forgotten army' as they of course fought on after the war ended in May 1945.
The first photo looks like an earlier one. The second photo features him standing next to a colleague proudly wearing his Australian bush hat. He is the one on the left of the picture. He became a Platoon Sergeant and may have been in the No.2 Company RASC No4 Wing BBRC India command as these details are written in his diary recorded in 1945 which I am transcribing from pencil entries.
He worked a lot repairing army vehicles at that time including 'ducks', and I recall his telling me that the soldiers had to cross rivers full of lethal snakes at night and of course they operated in the jungle against a formidable foe in the form of the Japanese army.
He contracted both malaria and dysentery and almost died but for the encouragement of a fellow invalid who reminded him that he had a wife and baby (my sister) back at home and for him not to give up.
The troops appeared to receive quite a lot in the form of entertainment with some famous singers and others visiting in order to keep up morale.
My father only weighed around 7 1/2 stone when he returned from Burma in November 1945 and I recall him mentioning that the 'Japs' put salt in their tea but he was perhaps recalling stories from colleagues who were in prisoner of war camps. There were rumours that my father was in one but he wasn't in 1945 and I can't imagine that they would release him early.
Stephen Bateman
Remembered by his nephew Errol Bateman.
An uncle of mine - Stephen Bateman (an Elder brother to my Father) was in Burmah when war with Japan was declared. He had moved there with his wife Joan during the early 1930's to set up a Market Gardening business. They lived in Rangoon where he had joined the Civil Defence Corps.
The Japanese were of course quick to over run such resistance. But Stephen did manage to get his wife & two children Sarah & Giles (now deceased) on to a ship called the Otranto which brought them to the UK.
He was taken prisoner, I think in 1940 or 41 & did survive to come home but, in a poor state of health & passed away in 1949. LIke many others, he would never talk of his experiences.
During the period 1941-1945 my sister, various other cousins plus Sarah & Giles all lived together in one house in Hucclecote Gloucestershire. Bit like an early "Commune". But that's what folk did in the war!
