Doris Henrietta Parker (1913 - 2003)

Born 22 Sep 1913 in White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of Benjamin Mapleback — married 17 Jun 1940 in Kerang, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 2 Oct 2003 at age 90 in Queensland, Australia

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Anzacs on Wikitree World War Two

A family history, as told by Doris Henrietta (Parker) Mapleback (1913-2003)

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This is Doris Mapleback's story, started in 1995. Doris (85 years young) is my aunt, widow of uncle Ben Mapleback (1914-1978). He was the youngest of the generation born to George Mapleback (1867-1939) and his second wife, Georgina (Muller) (1873-1941). It is a richly poignant story of how Doris, starting as a young teenager came into the world of the Skates, the Mullers and the Maplebacks in which family was large, dynamic and painted in sharp contrast to the family Doris never enjoyed as a girl.

Doris tells the story of the people she grew up with and the many relatives she acquired by marriage in colorful detail and with astounding recall. It brings life and color to an otherwise detailed, extensive but sometimes dull genealogical history. Starkly brutal in its telling is the horror of Ben’s experiences as a prisoner of war under the Japanese in Malaya and Thailand during most of the Second World War.

How Doris remembers the dates, the names and the details of events so long ago is a wonder.

It has been a privilege to record them for her, and for relatives now alive who will read this with awe, and, more importantly perhaps, for the lively gift this will be for all who will read this story in generations to come.

Thank you and God bless you, Doris.

John L. Mapleback,

Solana Beach, California,

March 21, 1999

Recorded: 1995-99.

Early Life

I was born September 22, 1913 to William and Effie Parker, nee Johanson, changed to Johnson after or during World War I. I had an elder sister, Agnes and younger sister, Irene.

We lived in the old Gold Customs House on Cambridge St. White Hills, a suburb of Bendigo, Victoria. My father operated a market garden there. He was also a hand plasterer between gardening.

When I was about 3 years old we moved to Clayton, Vic. where my father operated another market garden. I started school at Oakleigh, walking a long way through open paddocks, no houses.

My father was of English and Welsh descent and my mother of Irish/Norwegian descent. The children knew no grandparents; mother’s parents had died when she was about 4 years old; and my father rarely spoke of his. I have since discovered his father and 2 uncles were all Postmasters in Melbourne, Richmond and South Melbourne. My mother’s grandparents had been tenant farmers on Beenratty Castle in Ireland.

A 2nd cousin on my mother's side, from Eaglehawk (4 miles N of Bendigo) has constructed a family tree. He traveled to Ireland some years ago looking for relatives. He discovered two brothers Fitzgerald, one a widower with four daughters, emigrated to Australia and settled on Jackson Street, Eaglehawk in 1853. Their original house a pub, still stands, built of rocks and mud with walls three feet thick with recesses in the walls to keep their butter and other foods. I visited the pub some years ago for a family reunion. About 100 people came; many I hadn’t even heard of.

Gerald and Maureen Fitzpatrick, distant cousins of mine, had built a new house adjacent to the old place. There is about 20 acres of land at the rear of the old hotel. I don't have a lot of history of my family. I have a photo of an older lady and 5 small children standing in front of an old unpainted weatherboard cottage. My aunts, May, Nancy, Myra and Albert with my mother Henrietta standing in front of them. She appears to be about three years old.

They all lost both parents at an early age. Mother went to live in Ballarat with an uncle, John Moran, of the Moran and Cato grocery chain. He started off in Ballarat with two stores, one on the hill above the town and one in town. A brother who came with John to Australia had laid out the Ballarat Gardens, as I was told by some locals.

Some years ago I went to Ballarat, stayed at a motel, and tried to find any Morans. I chatted with people on buses, or sitting in the streets. I tried all the usual places and had no luck. I looked through the library where one sees all the people on a screen (Ed: 'microfiche'). I was amazed at all the babies that had died as infants. I guess a 'cold' could have killed people in those days-no anti-bi's. There were five Morans on the rolls but not 'ours.'

My 4 ft. 9 in. mother was very ill when I was born. She suffered from consumption (now called T.B.) and again at the time my younger sister Irene was born at White Hills. I was placed in the Berry Foundling Home as there were no relatives to take care of me. My father kept Agnes who was two years older.

While Irene was still a baby our father left us. Irene was placed with Mother’s second cousin and Agnes, my mother and I moved into a room at Inkerman Road Balaclava. Both my mother and I came down with pneumonic flu which was epidemic at the time. We were admitted to the Fairfield hospital while Agnes went to stay with my father at his boarding house.

After recovering we all moved to a room at Camberwell. The girls all attended the Brighton Road school at Balaclava and then on to the State school Camberwell until mother had to be admitted to hospital again. Agnes and I were placed in the Camberwell Salvation Army Home for Girls. It had its own school with visiting teachers.

Mother continued in and out of hospital; her sister Myra Ward of Mitcham often took me at which time I attended the Mitcham school. Aunt Myra was very kind to me. She had 2 daughters younger than me who attended the Mitcham Catholic school. After mother came out of hospital we moved into another room, this time at Northcote where I also attended school.

From here Mother once again was admitted to hospital where, after a week, she died. It had been some years since we had seen our father; he arrived and immediately arranged for Agnes and me to enter the Salvation Army Home for Girls this time in East Kew.

Like the other Camberwell Home, this one had its own school; it was a large old two story home with a tennis court and a large yard. It accommodated about 100 girls, about 12 girls to a dormitory.

My father remarried when I was about 11 years old. He and his new wife took us to live with them at Thackery Street, Reservoir. We attended school at Tyler St., Preston, again walking through open paddocks to get there.

Then again we moved, this time to Regent. The great Depression was on, my father could not find work as a plasterer and had to sell his house. We moved into rooms above Miss Dannock’s Sweet Shop on Glenferrie Rd. Glenferrie. I attended school in Glenferrie while Agnes was old enough to work at a white work factory in Flinder’s Lane in the City.

Shortly before my 12th. birthday, we moved back to the country, leasing land at Lake Charm (N.W. Victoria, between Kerang and Swan Hill) where we grew tomatoes and vegetables for market.

My father took me out of school to work on the land. That was a very sad day for me. There had been about 20 pupils, one teacher, and for the first time I had enjoyed school and my playmates. I did not want to leave; I thought I was really going to learn something there.

Unfortunately the land at Lake Charm was too salty for growing tomatoes or vegetables, and we moved again, this time about 20 miles to Barham, on the NSW side of the Murray river. I worked on the land for my father until I was about 14 1/2. His second family had arrived by then so my father placed me in ‘live-in domestic’ work. I never lived at home with my family again.

I had various live-in jobs. I worked for a bank manager and his wife, then cooking at a cafe in Barham, another bank manager’s place, and back to the same cafe at Barham. Once I started earning wages my father kept two shillings and sixpence out of the seven shillings and sixpence I earned (plus my keep). I sent postal notes home fortnightly.

This arrangement lasted until I was 20 years old. Being reared mostly in public homes, I did not know any difference, just took it for granted that was the way everyone lived, never having schoolmates tell me otherwise.

Husband Ben Mapleback

We were both 12 years old the first time I set eyes on my future husband, Ben Mapleback. I would pass his house on my way to the shops and the post office three days a week on my way to collect bread, meat and groceries. We had no means of transport, and shops would not deliver unless one purchased sugar and flour in large hessian bags.

Ben and I started keeping company when we were 17 years old. He was apprenticed at the time to a Barham bootmaker, so did not earn much. I had less. We were saving for our future together when I heard of a job at Canterbury (Melbourne-70 miles away) paying one pound per week and keep. I decided to take it and the chance to save some money.

At that time, Ben moved to Hamilton staying with his older brother Alf. He transferred his apprenticeship there, as well as his trombone playing in the Hamilton Band. He had been playing trombone since the age of 12 with the Barham Band.

We kept in touch by letters. I was very lonely in Melbourne however. I knew nobody and had little chance to meet people as I often worked until 9 PM. So I was heartbroken when I got a letter from my sister in Barham with the news that Ben had become engaged to a girl in Hamilton. It wasn’t long before she wrote again to tell me Ben had married and had a daughter. I stopped writing him.

About this time there was an outbreak of polio in Melbourne. I left for Sydney, secured a job at the North Shore Boys Grammar School, right alongside the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The work was heavy and it was long hours. I left for Turramurra, 20 miles from Sydney for a new job at a guest house set in lovely virgin bush land, rocks and wild flowers. There were 14 on the staff and I made nice friends there.

My sister Agnes wrote from Barham asking me to come and stay with her as she was having her first and only child. Her husband was a shearer and would be away a lot. They lived some 20 miles out of Barham with no neighbours.

So, uprooting myself one more time, I left a good job at an exclusive guest house taking exceptional tips from the wealthy clientele to move back to Barham.

Imagine my surprise to find Ben Mapleback back in Barham again! More surprise was my discovery that Ben had never married nor had a daughter. Those were his brother Alf’s circumstances. So much for the (many false) rumours that circulate in a small town.

Ben had returned to Barham to be with his mother, his father having recently passed away (1939). He had his own bootmaking business in Kerang, 17 miles from Barham.

Two months later Ben and I were engaged, I went to work in Kerang and we were married six months after that.

It was not an idyllic wedding day. I had arranged everything to be perfect for us and about 40 guests. We were to wed at 10:30 AM. then to catch a bus at 2:00 PM for Melbourne and on to the Grampians for our honeymoon. Ben was due to report for duty in the Army four days later.

I was arranging my wedding veil that morning when a friend brought dire news. My future mother-in-law had been putting on her hat when she suffered a coronary.

She survived and we did get married later that day; but only a few guests had stayed for the wedding breakfast and the onlookers did not return to the church. Neither my father not my step mother attended. We did not get a honeymoon, the bus trip and the photographer all canceled; a really disastrous day, and bitterly cold! We had no heat or air conditioning in those days just the kitchen fire. I had stood about all day in a white satin gown alarmed, freezing and worried.

World War II

Ben duly reported for duty at Camp Pell. I followed him to Melbourne a couple of weeks later. When he was sent to Balcombe camp, I got a room at Mornington. It was the front room of the house with an open fireplace with a sheet of tin propped up on some bricks. I did my cooking over that. In those dark days early in the war, people made all sorts of arrangements to let rooms to soldiers wives. Another family had the kitchen and the bedrooms. We shared the bathroom, etc.

Ben was transferred to Darly just outside of Bacchus Marsh, where I rented a room. I took on all kinds of jobs as I was receiving only two pounds two shillings a week soldier’s pay. My rent was one pound five shillings.

From there Ben was sent to Albury, NSW. I got a job cooking at a private hospital. Whilst there Ben’s mother (Georgina Mapleback) died (9 Feb. 1941). We were on leave in Barham at the time. Ben returned to camp at Bandianna after the funeral and I stayed in Barham helping Grace (Skate) Forbes get the house and furniture ready for sale.

Ben was moved again to Bathurst and I joined him there. I boarded with a very nice family and with whom we stayed in touch for many years.

Ben’s battalion departed Bathurst for Malaya. I stayed with Delia Mapleback, wife of Ben’s brother Clarrie, at Eaglehawk. She was expecting their 3rd. child. After that I returned to Kerang and worked with another nice family there who owned Hawthorne’s Store.

February 18th. 1942 I was notified that Ben was Missing in Action; 22 months after that I was notified he was a Prisoner of War; and then, three and a half years later, and one month after the War had ended, I was notified he was alive.

I joined the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) in March of 1942, completed my rookie training at camp Darly, then served at District Records Office, Medical Section, housed in Myer’s department store, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

Although I was haunted not knowing where Ben was, I felt always that he was alive somewhere. Despite this life became easier for me. I actually enjoyed army life. I wasn’t doing degrading work; we all wore the same uniforms. I learned to type and bookkeeping. The work in Medical Records was very interesting. I made a lot of friends and I felt equal to everyone else. I felt Ben would have liked me being in the services. The mixed sexes crowd was good; we all went out together-to shows, dances, etc. Time passed.

August of 1945 the war was over. What a day in the city with huge crowds in the streets. Everyone just walked out of their offices as the good news spread - great excitement everywhere.

I had some mixed feelings of course. I didn’t know where my Ben was. I left the crowds and went to McKinnon to celebrate with family, Ben’s eldest brother Jack Mapleback (John Joseph 1896-1965), his wife Gladys (Knowles) and their three children. [including John Lawrence, this transcriber]

It was more than a month later and more than three and a half long years since he was reported missing, I received the most wonderful words that Ben was alive.

I had never given up hope that he would come through but my faith did waiver during that last long month, after the war had ended, and before I learned he was coming home.

After the War

Ben was home!

Jim Mapleback, Ben’s brother had arranged for us to stay at a hotel in the city, opposite Spencer Street Station - no mean feat at that frantic time.

During my army days, I had found board in several places, some quite terrible, until I found a place on Snowden Avenue, Caulfield with a Mrs. Codby who had sons away in the war too. She was a wonderful person and took care of me. After Ben came home he was able to stay there also while he completed his months of rehabilitation.

We moved to Albury in February of 1946 and bought a boot repair and shoe shop. There were six people on the staff. I also served on the counter and performed many jobs including machine stitching.

Housing was a big problem after the war. for everybody We lived in several rooms and boarding houses until our first home was built. We had three houses after that. Building and selling houses was the way to make money back then. Unfortunately we were caught with a shaky builder and did not make as much money as we first anticipated.

For some 23 years we lived on Wandoo Crescent, only 12 minutes walk from the center of the city right next to the Mercy Hospital. But then the government forcibly acquired our property in order to expand the hospital. We fought it, but did not prevail.

I believe that was the beginning of the end for Ben. He had suffered two coronaries and other war-related ailments and being forced out of his home made things worse. We built a new home in East Albury and had been in it just three weeks when Ben suffered two more heart attacks. In hospital he had more attacks, the final fatal one on the first of April, 1978.

I remained in our house for almost eight years, establishing a garden, etc. but it was too lonely. I had suffered through two break-ins and was scared being isolated, and in 1985, I had a small two bedroom cottage built in a retirement complex, my present address.

I am as content now as anyone can be living alone. In this complex there are 64 cottages, a 40-bed hostel and a 40-bed Dementia hospital. My neighbours are nice, some into their nineties. All must be older than 60 to live here.

We enjoy a monthly dinner in the recreation hall, other entertainments during the week, which I do not attend, cards on Saturday afternoons, in which I do participate, and I maintain a large garden. I go to church Wednesday mornings. I taught Sunday school at Saint Matthew’s Church of England for 15 years.

I play at lawn bowling and cards at the Bowls Club; I visit friends, and go shopping (now on foot or by taxi). So my life is full; I keep reasonably well; I still suffer some arthritis, osteo and rheumatoid, but not as bad as years ago (1961-69) when I was not able to feed or to dress myself at times.

God was good to us; when I was at my worst, Ben was well. Then I got healthier when he became ill.

Ben and I were both saddened that we could not have a children of our own. I blame the Japs for that. We were lucky however to have the pleasure of raising our lovely Sue. She was only 13 days old when she came to us.

Susan grew up, married, and had two sons with Barry John Tucker, (1948-), Shane (1972) and Kristean (1975). Their marriage broke up after 20 years. She has since remarried to a friend of the family (George Frederickson), and is now living happily in Canberra. They have just bought a second home on the NSW south coast. Sue works for cancer specialist doctor in Canberra. George is a business broker.

Ben's Early Life

Ben was the youngest of sixteen children including the children of his mother, Georgina’s two marriages - first to William John Clayton Skate (1866- 1907)) (9 surviving children), and then to Ben’s father, George Mapleback (1867-1939) who brought four of his to the household (George, Jack, Jim and Ellen). Then George and Georgina had three of their own, Ben and his two brothers, Alf and Clarrie. 16 children under the age of 23 when Ben was born.

Ben’ s parents married in 1908, both for the second time. George and Georgina had been childhood sweethearts in Rushworth, Victoria. They had both married others and upon the deaths of those spouses met again and married.

After their marriage they lived for a time on the Skate property, Merran Park, 15 miles out of Barham. Merran Park, a 3668 acre property had been purchased in 1905 by Georgina and her first husband William Skate. Thereafter George and Georgina purchased a property named “Rivernook” in Barham and on the River Murray (the border between Victoria and NSW) where they lived until their deaths in 1939 (George) and 1941. The local river crossing (a punt service) was on this property and the large house had been a Customs House before Federation and then a hospital.

Rivernook had all the work areas: kitchen, scullery, laundry, pantry, sewing room and bathroom at the rear, then a large arcade which was the dining room spanning the full width of the house in the centre and the bedrooms at the front.

This central room was the focal point, with a large table with six huge carved claw legs and which seated 24 people. Also in that room was an organ and a piano. It was used for many family and social gatherings, dances, etc. Ben played saxophone and trombone, Alf played euphonium, and the girls all played the organ or the piano.

The front of the house consisted of bedrooms, a lounge and a sitting room, surrounded by verandahs. I remember it as a wonderful happy home. The large family got along well together. Ben’s father was a very kindly old man. He would do his best to make me feel at home; I guess he realized I had never had such a home as a child. Ben’s mother Georgina was a gracious lady. Most called her ‘Gordee.’ She would have been a lovely mother in law had she lived.

Gordee had a Phaeton and two grey ponies and looked very stately driving them. She stood tall and straight and had a lovely head of grey curls. These grey genes were passed on from her (and from the Mapleback side) to all the children. Gordee was quite deaf and I had trouble making her hear me when others were around, but alone I could yell louder to her.

She was heartbroken when four of her children, Fred Skate, Alf, Ben and Clarrie all enlisted in the Army at the outbreak of the Second Word War, and again later when Harry’s (Skate) daughter and sons also joined up.

Their property, “Rivernook” faced the Murray River and was bounded by streets on the other three sides. I’d say it was about 20 acres. As the family grew other houses were built on the property, then the back portion of the house was dismantled to be moved and became Georgina’s youngest son by her first marriage, Fred Skate’s (1907-1974) house when he married Myrtle (Symons).

The punt at Rivernook was the only crossing of the river between Koondrook in Victoria and Barham in NSW before the suspension bridge was built. The middle section was raised to allow river traffic to pass under. As a child in Barham I can remember I could tell the identity of each familiar boat by its distinctive whistle which was sounded constantly as a signal for the center to be raised. It was mostly wool boats. Logs also were floated down the river past the Mapleback’s property to the timber mill on the Victorian side.

Myrtle Skate (Fred’s widow) lives with her daughter Patricia Johansen in Toowoomba, Queensland, and is the oldest Skate, now (1995) about 84 years. I believe I am the oldest living Mapleback.

I shall always be grateful for the love and affection both your (Jack and Gladys Mapleback) family and Jim’s (1898-1968) showed me during those war years. I arrived on their doorsteps, having only met Jack once at his work in the city and Jim at his work at the Electricity Office. Ben had introduced me to them when he was on final leave prior to shipping to Malaya (1940). It was a couple of years later that I joined the army and made myself known to both families.

I have been fortunate these past 18 years since Ben passed. I have traveled through most of Australia. I went to Singapore for the 40th. War anniversary for 12 days. I saw the war graves cemetery where so many are buried. I also visited part of ‘the line,’ the infamous Burma Railway built by the prisoners of the Japanese and where Ben spent most of his three and a half years of captivity and brutal conditions. It was a moving experience.

I hope you can read my writing, John; it never was one of my best achievements.

Doris. 1995

BEN’S, ALF’S AND CLARRIE’S WAR EXPERIENCES:

[Editor: In a separate story, Doris recalled Ben’s, and his brothers' wartime experiences with remarkable clarity for one who was not the principal and 17 years after Ben’s death:]

Ben's War

Ben Mapleback enlisted in the Army June 13, 1940. We were married just four days later on June 17th. Ben reported to Camp Pell Melbourne on June 24th. rotating in short order through Camp Balcombe (Vic.), Darly, near Bacchus Marsh (Vic.), then to Albury (NSW) and on to Bathurst (NSW), from whence he shipped July 30, 1941 to join the British Australian garrison defending Malaya from an expected Japanese invasion.

When the Japanese landed North of Singapore and invaded through the Malaysian jungle rather than as expected by sea, the British forces had nowhere to go. Singapore fell February 15, 1942. 70,000 men were taken prisoner.

In Ben’s unit all the superior officers had been killed; Ben was field-promoted to Acting Sergeant to lead the platoon in defensive action. As one point he reported he looked back to see his brother Clarrie fall but could not go back to help. For three and half years, Ben did not know that Clarrie had survived.

20 of ‘C’ company’s men were caught behind enemy lines. They decided to break into groups of four to try to get back to the unit barracks. In Ben’s group was a Lieutenant Coats, a private whose name I can’t recall, and Pte. Jackie Manners from Barham (his wife worked for Ben’s mother and they had been married just one week after our wedding).

These four lived off the jungle, green bananas, game, and occasionally some help from friendly local Chinese families. The four of them were bathing in the Maur river one morning when 2 Japanese soldiers caught them. They had been betrayed by a Chinese family, quite understandably, as it was their lives against the lives of these alien soldiers.

Ben became a Prisoner of War on his 28th. birthday March 12, 1942. The Japs placed the four of them into a truck, tied them together and drove them a long distance to a dry creek bed. They cut Lt. Coats and the Pte. off from the other two, marched them down to the creek and shot them dead. Ben and Jackie were expecting the same, but the Japs left them in the truck and drove them on to the infamous Changi Prison camp in Singapore.

[Ed: read James Clavell’s “King Rat” for a gripping tale of life in that hellhole]

The reason they had been spared summary execution was because unlike the others, Ben and Jackie did not have visible tropical ulcers on their legs. The Japs who captured them, strangely were not susceptible to ulcers but were afraid of catching them.

Actually Ben had ulcers too, but they had been covered by his puttees (gaiters). The Japs confiscated all their possession and the men wore only crude 'G' strings. Ben's ulcers were very bad, and later at Changi, a Dr. 'Weary' Dunlop who had no supplies would scrape out the puss with a spoon while several men held Ben down. Ben credited Dr. Dunlop with saving his life.

Ben's suffered with his ulcers for the rest of his life. He was hopitalized several times for skin grafts, which laid him up for six months at a time. At home or when playing bowls he would wear several layers of newspaper under his socks to protect his shins, where the most troublesome ulcers were; the ulcers on his heels and on the backs of his legs never gave him as much trouble.

Ben and Jackie met other survivors of their battalion in Changi Jail. They weren’t to stay there long, being shipped North to work on the Burma Siam (Thailand) Railway moving from camp to camp as the railway progressed.

I gathered additional background and information about Ben’s experiences when I attended the 40th. anniversary of the fall of Singapore in 1982. I stayed at the famous Raffles hotel with other members of the POW association. It was an extensive tour. We were taken to all the camps, the Changi jail, the cemetery, and the infamous Railway, as far as it went. During its construction more than 12,000 of the 60,000 allied POWs died mainly of disease, sickness, malnutrition and exhaustion - and were buried along the railway.

[Ed: More notes on the Burma Railway from the internet at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai> :

In June, 1942, the Japanese decided to complete the railway connecting Moulmein with Ban Pong. It had been started before the war but was abandoned by Burma and Siam (now Thailand). More than 250 miles of railway, from Thanbyuzayat in Burma to Ban Pong in Siam, remained to be constructed, much of it through mountainous jungle country, in a region with one of the worst climates in the world and subject to almost every known tropical disease.

Following their victory in Malaya and the fall of Singapore in February 1942 as well as that of the Netherlands East Indies shortly after, the Japanese Army found it had acquired a potentially strong and well trained workforce, much of which it subsequently transported to Siam and Burma to be put to work.

The Japanese aimed to complete the Siam-Burma railway in fourteen months, or at least by the end of 1943. From June 1942 onwards large groups of prisoners were transferred to Thailand and Burma from Singapore, Java and Sumatra. Those sent to Burma were transported, under extremely bad conditions, by ship. The prisoners selected to work in Thailand were crammed into small steel box-cars and transported by rail to Ban Pong under equally inhumane conditions.

Throughout the building of the railway, food supplies were irregular and totally inadequate. Brought up by barge on the Kwai Noi River or by truck on a road which was merely a converted jungle track, a constant supply could not be maintained and rations were almost always below even the official Japanese scales. Vegetables and other perishables long in transit arrived rotten. The rice was of poor quality, frequently maggoty or in other ways contaminated, and fish, meat, oil, salt and sugar were on minimum scale.

Although it was sometimes possible to supplement this diet by purchases from local traders, men often had to live for weeks on little more than a small daily portion of rice flavoured with salt. Red Cross parcels would have helped but these were invariably held up by the Japanese. Malaria, dysentery, Pellagra (a vitamin deficiency disease) and later Cholera attacked the prisoners and labourers, and the number of sick in the camps were always high.]

Doris continues:

Also on my 1982 tour were two ex POWs‘ from C’ company. They gave me a lot of names and other information. Neither of them had known Ben. We visited some of the prison camps along the line that Ben had been in during the progress of construction of the line. As they progressed through the years of construction each camp, the veterans told me, was worse than the others. The men became progressively weaker from the starvation rations and from the many jungle diseases. Ben contracted every illness except Cholera. He suffered through Malaria some 25 bouts, Beri-Beri, all the time, Pellagra from July through September. Dysentery most of the time-as did all the men- and trouble with his ears and sight. He kept suffering relapses of these illnesses and was in the camp hospitals for a total of 11 months of the three and a half years.

The hospitals (if there were any) were crude structures, bamboo slats for walls and a leaf roofs. There was essentially no medicine except what the prisoner doctors concocted from the leafs and shrubs growing in the jungle. (Being employed in the Army Medical Records Office I learned some of this from Ben’s records from Malaya as they were saved after the war).

At times when Ben was so ill he could not stand, he was carried on a bamboo stretcher to a pile of rocks, given a hammer with which he had to break his quota of rocks each day to be used as ballast on the railway line. If he failed to complete his quota the guards bashed him.

From a healthy 14 1/2 stone (203 lbs) when he left Australia he sank to under 5 stone (70 lbs.). By October of 1945, when he arrived back in Australia, he was only 8 stone (112lbs) and 2 inches shorter than at enlistment. The padding between his spinal disks (and who knows what else) had shrunk under the onslaught of the poor diet and the beatings.

As the line neared its completion most of the prisoners were returned to Changi to build an airport. The prisoners at Changi were by no means well-treated, but they fared considerably better than Ben and his mates in the outlying camps.

Ben was among those who was kept on the line to cut timber as fuel for the trains and to repair damage to the line which was under constant attack by allied aircraft. Ben told me they had to dig big deep trenches for our fellows to hide in when the Americans dropped their bombs.

The war had been over a week or more before these fellows knew. The Japs offered them cigarettes and were very friendly, "You my friend." sort of attitude. Then when our flags were flown, Ben and the others knew the war was really over.

It was a while before they were taken to Singapore and put on a plane to some island (I can't recall its name). Ben had his first taste of bread in three and a half years on that plane. They stayed there a while and then came home by ship, the "Taramoa," arriving October 4, 1945. There were 666 POWs on that ship.

The war had been over more than one month before I got word that he had been found alive in Siam (Thailand). He was the only one to survive from his ‘C’ company group of four. We discovered that Jackie Manners had been on a ship carrying POWs to work in Tokyo when it was sunk by American aircraft. They had no idea of its cargo at the time of course.

Ironically Jackie’s wife had given up hope he was alive when Singapore fell. She never wrote to him. Ben told me the Japs would line up the prisoners and read out the names of men who had received mail and then destroy it. Nevertheless Jackie, Ben said, was always sad when his name was not called.

I wrote to Ben as often as it was allowed by the Army, once a month. Letters had to be type-written so I would write them and send them to a woman in Sydney who would type them for me. I never met this woman. She was a volunteer doing her bit for the war effort. We corresponded for years after the war.

Ben received but a few of my letters. In return I received a total of three cards with ten words on each of them-all that was allowed by the Japs. Better than nothing!

Alf's War

I do not know much about Alf’s (Mapleback 1909-1987, Ben’s eldest full brother) war service. He was in New Guinea for a while, then received compassionate leave to be with his wife Ruby for the birth of their first child, Janece. I think he served on the Kokoda Trail (New Guinea).

He died September 10, 1987 while visiting his first born (with his first wife, Ina Osborough) daughter, Marjorie at Tweed Heads, NSW. after suffering a sudden heart attack.

Clarrie's War

Now for Clarrie, Ben’s next oldest full brother:

Serving with Ben in Malaya, he was shot in the mouth. The bullet came out the side of his face leaving nasty scar like fingers outstretched, but plastic surgery made a wonderful difference. He was left with a faint scar and a lisp. He then was sent to New Guinea where his brother Alf was serving. They actually ran into each other there.

It was a miracle that Clarrie survived Malaya and then New Guinea. He had only one lung. He had contracted Hydatus (a parasitic disease) when he was a boy after swimming in a creek with some dogs. Nevertheless he was classified A1 for overseas service by the Army.

I was close to Clarrie. When he and Ben sailed for Singapore in 1942, I stayed with Delia (his wife) and their two children, Desmond, and Rosamond, as Delia was expecting their third three months after the boys sailed. Delia suffered complications after Valerie’s birth and was in Bendigo hospital for more than three months. She wasn’t long out of the hospital when Singapore fell, and she didn‘t know the fate of her husband.

Clarrie found his way on to the last hospital ship to leave Singapore. His name and his experience was included in a book on the 2/29 Battalion citing him for the way he conducted himself as one of the walking wounded. Ben and Clarrie both reported their experiences to the War Crimes Commission after they returned from Malaya.

In a rather ungrateful act, I think, the Army did not honor Ben’s field promotion to Acting Sergeant in 1942. This cost us considerably in the loss of his accumulated back pay.

End Note

[Ed: In the final paragraph of 22 pages of hand writing, Doris relates how difficult it has been for her physically to prepare this story:]

I’m afraid my writing and spelling is not so good these days; I am almost blind now and use a magnifying glass to read. I have been blind in the left eye for years and then got an ulcer over the right eye. Otherwise I’m very active still. I now walk a lot since having to part with my beloved Austin 1800 car. I still bowl, look after home and garden, walk to the shops, etc. and generally enjoy my existence.

Doris Mapleback 1995.

Sources

• WikiTree profile Parker-6960 created through the import of MAPLEBACK family 9.ged on Jan 19, 2012 by John Mapleback. See the Changes page for the details of edits by John and others.

Notes

Note N102

A family history, as told by

Doris Henriette (Parker) Mapleback (1913-)

User ID

User ID: 6236A1DA9F6A4BA5985A01B5DE04F918A73A

Data Changed

Data Changed:

Date: 8 DEC 2003

Prior to import, this record was last changed 8 DEC 2003.