The Soldier's Details

Roy Briggs enlisted just a month or two before his older brother John Arthur Briggs WX5050.  John was a driver with Headquarters Company and selected to work on the Burma-Thai Raiway with ‘A’ Force, Green Force No 3 Battalion.  Tragically John died at Khonkan Camp Burma on 11 September 1943 following leg amputation.  He was 29 years of age.

John Arthur Briggs older brother to Roy.

John was selected to work on the Burma-Thai Railway with ‘D’ Force Thailand S Battalion.  They departed by train from Singapore in mid March 1943 for Bampong, Thailand (then the end of the railway line).

They remained a few days at  Komna Transit Camp nearby before being trucked to Kanchanaburi.  After a brief stopover they were marched out to Tarsau, which was the HQ Camp for S Battalion.  The men worked for a few weeks to clear the way for the laying of the railway.  It was not too difficult!

They were moved to Kanyu II on 25 April 1943 – one of the POW Camps working on the Hellfire Pass cutting.  This was the beginning of a hellish time.  It was the beginning of the monsoonal rains and speedo – the Japanese wanted to complete their railway.  They came up against long hours working with little or no clothing, mostly no shoes, little food, beaten by their guards and facing unheard of tropical illnesses for which there was no medicine. There was malaria, dysentery, beri beri and finally cholera.

It is believed he was with a party sent to Konkoita after Kanyu II.  From there they went to Sonkurai and Nikhe-Nikhe Defence Line from May 1945.

He was recovered from Thailand at the end of the war.

In the social notes of ‘Borehole Bulletin’ January 1972 – mention was made Roy (the Fox) and Hazel Briggs living in Adelaide.

Edith Briggs is obviously not the mother of John and Roy Briggs.     Edith Hill and Frederick Briggs married in 1939 and divorced in 1944.     Their father Frederick George Briggs died in Perth Oct 1961 aged 82 years, buried Karrakatta.