VJ Day in Moray – Remarkable story of POW and his 'Liberation Flag'
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A pair of Moray sisters want to trace the 'Liberation Flag' made by their father who endured more than three years as a Japanese POW.
William Barr Cochrane was born in Elgin on July 16, 1915.
Educated at The West End Primary School and Elgin Academy, he then joined his father’s music business at 142 High Street, Elgin.
William volunteered for the 18th Divisional Signals in 1941 and arrived in Singapore on January 27 the following year.
It was just 19 days before the island fell to the Japanese.
As a result, William became one of 100,000 servicemen and women who were to endure more than three-and-a-half years of appalling deprivation and cruelty as POWs.
Liz Ashworth, who lives in Lhanbryde, said: "My dad had the dubious distinction of being amongst the party of prisoners who laid the first rails of the notorious 'Death Railway' the Japanese were building through the jungle.
"However, after two months of hard labour he became incapacitated by tropical ulcers on his legs and was laid up in the sick bay where he had the lucky break that he believed saved his life.
"He volunteered to repair an officer’s trousers and, having made a reasonable job of it, his name was proposed as a camp tailor.
"He was then transferred to another POW camp at Kanchanaburi in Thailand.
"Here he was presented with a singer sewing machine which he could not thread, let alone operate.
"Dad bluffed his way into his new profession and at one time had five assistants working for both the Japanese and fellow POWs.
"Consequently, he escaped working on the infamous ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ which was just up the road from the camp.
"However he did endure the brutality of the guards, disease, and a starvation diet.
Finally the war ended on VJ Day, August 16, 1945.
Sue Barr Cochrane, who lives in Cummingston, said: "Dad was asked to make a Red Cross flag to mark the dropping station for supplies.
"By error he took the red cross right out to the borders of the cloth.
"So instead of a Red Cross, he ended up making a St George’s flag.
"However, he managed to rectify this by cutting up a curtain pelmet and hand-sewing it around the edges."
Years later, in 1956 or 1957, and much to his surprise, William saw that selfsame flag in an exhibition of wartime memorabilia held in the Baptist Church hall on Orchard Brae in Edinburgh.
The flag was labelled as having been made by the 'Unknown Soldier'.
Sue said: "Unfortunately, there was no-one in an official capacity he could talk to about the flag and several other items which he recognised as his handy work.
"That ‘Unknown Soldier’ began his quest to re-find his flag in 1997 when he contacted the Red Cross.
"The Red Cross pointed him in the direction of the National War Museum.
"The museum redirected him somewhere else.
"And so it went on."
William has passed away in 2011 but his search continues to this day.
Liz and Sue would like nothing more now than to be able to trace their dad's Liberation Flag.
Liz said: "It's easily recognisable by its hand-sewn border.
"Who knows? Perhaps someone reading this article might have a clue.
"Although he carried the physical and mental scars of his time as a POW, Dad always looked on the bright side of life.
"He only told good humoured wartime stories of friendship, coincidences, and surprising kindness.
"He also reckoned that his experiences changed him into a more tolerant, understanding man.
"His philosophy was – 'you cannot live with hate'.
"How true. Perhaps that is the ultimate liberation."
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