Borneo Camp Prisoner of War Mail - Kuching Camp, Sarawak An
extraordinary collection of Prisoner of War cards, informatively
presented upon
Borneo Camp Prisoner of War Mail - Kuching Camp, Sarawak An
extraordinary collection of Prisoner of War cards, informatively
presented upon 11 pages, comprising seven cards including a
complete set of all 5 Types of Japanese POW cards, sent from
Kuching by Private Albert Briggs, a Prisoner in Borneo.
Additionally, a card written by the same prisoner when in transit
through Singapore (9 OCT 1942) and also an incoming card sent to
the Batu Lintang Camp. The collection comprises one example of each
of the Japanese PoW cards Types; 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cards, all sent
to the Briggs family in Birstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire and each
showing censor chop with the red seal of camp commandant, Colonel
Suga, and red arrival censor handstamp. Additionally there is an
incoming card addressed to; Lieutenant D.P. Glasgow, British
Prisoner of War, Borneo Camp, dated 8th March 1944, received 21
September 1944. There is also an aerial photograph of the Batu
Lintang Prisoner of War Camp, Kuching, taken from a Royal
Australian Air Force reconnaissance aircraft shortly before the end
of the Japanese occupation of Borneo. The original was given to
Private Albert Briggs when recuperating in hospital on Labuan
Island, by the pilot of the plane who apologised for (unknowingly
at the time) putting the lives of the prisoner’s at risk during the
bombing of the air-strip being built by POW on the outskirts of
Kuching. The photo includes a key of 6 points of interest in the
camp. Accompanying this collection is a A4 page with a handwritten
story which was narrated to Jack Roberts (Mike Roberts' father)
directly by Albert Briggs. Some creases and faults although in the
main a remarkably well preserved group. Complete sets of cards from
the same prisoner are extremely rare and together with the
additional cards, and photograph, this represents a unique
opportunity to acquire a specialised collection which has resided
in the Mike J. Roberts family collection for two generations. Note:
Private Albert Briggs was born in April 1921 and left Britain as
part of a Heavy Anti-Aircraft Unit bound for India which was
diverted to Batavia. He was captured in Java early in March 1942
and transported to Borneo via Singapore. Briggs would have been in
the group that arrived in Kuching on 13 October 1943. The Prisoners
in this camp managed to construct a clandestine radio from material
found on the Camp or stolen from the Japanese. Private Briggs was
responsible for looking after a small tubular Erasmic shaving cream
tin which contained one of the parts for the radio. In one incident
Briggs was punished for stealing a coconut from Kuching docks and
confined for a month in a cage in which he could neither sit down
nor lie. When the Camp was eventually liberated in September 1945,
by Australian forces, Briggs weighed only 4½ stones. He spent three
days in Sarawak General Hospital and some time in Labuan before
being sent to recuperate in Bangalore. When he arrived home in West
Yorkshire on New Year’s Eve 1945 he weighed 11 stones
