Moray POW given a beating ... and some hope

Last week, in part two of our four-part series, we told how Elgin's Bill Barr Cochrane, a POW of the Japanese, was suddenly made a tailor despite having no experience of the job.

Here is part three:

Even though Bill was now off his feet, the humid tropical climate, allied to the lack of medical supplies amongst the POWs, meant that the weeping sores on his legs remained a serious problem.

However a Japanese doctor agreed to see him.

Bill said: "Well, he was a reasonably pleasant man and he cured my legs for me. I had a lot to be thankful to him for."

He was then sent to yet another camp.

"It was at Kanchanaburi. That's where the bridge was, although I never saw it at the time."

The structure he refers to was Bridge 277, later to be made famous by the postwar film The Bridge On The River Kwai.

Bill recalled: "I had to do repair jobs for the Japanese officers of the camp, provided they had a bit of paper or a chit. I didn't know what it said but it was their authority for me to do a job.

"One day a batman – known as a tow ban – came for me and although he didn't speak English he led me to understand that he wanted me to accompany him.

"He led me to this office and there was a Japanese Major.

"I bowed at the waist like you had to, and he handed me this pair of jodhpurs which had a hole in the knee.

"By this time I was getting reasonably efficient with the sewing machine so I repaired them for him and took them back to the office.

"I found him still seated at his desk wearing only his underpants.

"I bowed, gave him the jodhpurs, he took them and bowed, I bowed and left.

"It occurred to me that he probably only had one pair of jodhpurs to wear."

A while later the Batman returned.

Bill recalled: "He wanted me to repair a leather case for him, but he didn't have a chit.

"So I said, 'No, you go to the officer and get a chit and bring it back'.

"I didn't know how I was going to repair a leather case but I thought we'll deal with that when the time comes.

"But I couldn't get him to see reason. It was knocking-off time so I got off back to my billet. I'd no sooner got in and he came flying into the place as well.

"He made me stand to attention in front of him and started to get stuck into me.

"The rest of the lads were round and about.

"They said, 'keep your hands to your sides Bill'. They were frightened in case I hit him back, and that would have been worse.

"He eventually got tired of this and away he went.

"So I said, 'okay lads, I know what I'm going to do', and I went to see the officer."

Bill proceeded to explain how and why he'd been set upon.

The officer picked up a sword stick and asked for the guilty batman to be pointed out.

Bill said: "And, boy, did he give him a thrashing. But it wasn't because he'd hit me. It was because he had disobeyed the officer and didn't have a a chit."

Not long afterwards the Japanese decided to move all the POWs away from their headquarters and into the main Kanchanaburi camp next door.

Bill recalled: "I thought this is the end of my job. But no, there were two fellas who were tailors in this camp and I was put in as their boss

"One of them was a pukka tailor – and I felt dreadful about it, but however.

"I think it was the following evening that our fellas or the Yanks came over.

"They were aiming for the Japanese base camp and they blew it sky high.

"And I thought, 'yesterday I was down there'."

The air attack provided the first ray of hope for the POWs who, isolated from the outside world, had little knowledge of how the war was going.

Next week: Dreams of coming hope to Scotland.

Related articles:

• Part one of The Accidental Tailor: How Moray soldier survived as a Japanese POW

• Part two of The Accidental Tailor: Moray POW put to work on the 'Death Railway'