The book was collated by Dr Sue Palmer, who briefly worked alongside him in a GP surgery in Dereham, Norfolk.
In 1940, Harold Churchill left his medical practice in Norfolk to join the army as a medical officer. He was stationed in Glasgow, checking the health of men boarding the troop ships. However this was not close enough to the action for him, so he put himself forward for service in India, and from there was taken to Singapore where he was captured in February 1942.
During his captivity he and his fellow-officers had the daunting task of caring for the sick and wounded among the many thousands of prisoners of war. He managed to keep a diary on rice paper which he buried in a tin to keep it from the guards. Had it been found, he would have been severely punished. Later he wrote this up as a memoir, as a form of therapy. Described as a `remarkable document, reticent, sensitive and poetic', it displays calm, undemonstrative religiosity, but shows flashes of Churchill drawing on the deep faith of his childhood to sustain him in some of the darker moments.
Following the war, he attended church every Sunday, although did not overtly identify himself with fellow FEPOWs on Remembrance Sunday.
Dr Harold Churchill
The second half of the book is a collection of memories collected by Dr Palmer from surviving Norfolk FEPOWs, and are a testament to the men's bravery in the face of some of the most barbaric treatment meted out during the war.
In 2011 a gingko tree was planted in East Dereham, the town to which Dr Churchill retired, in honour of the FEPOWs of that town. http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/promise_is_met_at_last_in_dereham_to_honour_the_fepows_1_1124702
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