Alexandra Hospital - Singapore & Clean up Party February 1942
The Alexandra Hospital opened July 1940, was a British Military Hospital for the use by the British garrison at Singapore. The hospital is nestled in the corner of Ayer Raja and Alexandria Roads. The hospital had 356 beds – already they realised it was not sufficiently large. They could manage maximum of 550 patients.
On 14th February 1942, St Valentine’s Day, there were 900 wounded soldiers at the hospital lying on stretchers squeezed between beds, lying under boardroom tables and on verandahs. The 32nd Company of the Royal Army Medical Corps was running the hospital under very difficult conditions. Overall there was no running water and no electricity. Water was rationed to cups, torches and lights were used only for medical procedures or surgeons operating in sunlit areas and corpses wrapped in blankets remained unburied.
The hospital and surrounds had been under heavy Japanese shell power since early morning 14th February. At about 1pm Japanese troops could be seen entering the rear of the hospital via Ayer Raja Road. The soldiers wanted watches and rings from patients before they were bayonetted or shot in their beds where they lay prone, one poor fellow even on the operating theatre table where he lay anaesthetised. About 200 of the patients and staff were killed. The next day on the 15th February, the Japanese massacred at least another 100 personnel.
Estimations of the total deaths is about 300.
It is conclusive the Commanding officer of the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion Lt-Col Michael Anketell was not involved in this horrific episode as he had already passed away at 0745 hours on 13th February.
U Tube interview of Stuart Lloyd author of Massacre at Alexandra Hospital 14 and 15 February 1942.
In the immediate aftermath the hospital ‘clean-up’ was largely handled by the surviving medical staff and Australian personnel like Col. Glyn White, who took command after the massacre, managing the remaining patients and dealing with the horrific scene under difficult conditions.
SINGAPORE. 1945-09-13.
PRISONERS OF WAR RELEASED FROM CHANGI PRISON CAMP WERE EVACUATED FROM SINGAPORE BY THE AUSTRALIAN HOSPITAL SHIP MANUNDA, THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN SHIP TO ARRIVE AT SINGAPORE AFTER THE SURRENDER OF THE JAPANESE. SHOWN, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL J. GLYN WHITE, HQ AIF MALAYA, WHO WAS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL SERVICES, AUSTRALIAN PRISONER OF WAR CAMPS, SINGAPORE, DURING THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION
There are reasons why the massacre was airbrushed over by the British. The Alexandra Hospital location turned out to be an embarrassment for the British army.
It was located perilously close and amid strategic targets such as ammunition targets and oil tanks.
The ABC’s Micaela Hambrett interviewed author Stuart Lloyd ……..Monday 14 February 2022
Questions remain 80 years on from the Valentine’s Day Massacre during the Fall of Singapore February 1942.
Not only was the Alexandra perilously close to strategic locations – ammunition targets and oil tanks, etc. With the Japanese army rapidly advancing, the Allies had used the hospital as cover during their hasty withdrawal, leaving behind 900 wounded and vulnerable soldiers with unarmed doctors and hospital staff.
During early enquiries author Stuart Lloyd read the diaries of Captain Pilkington who was a patient at Alexandra Hospital, and survived. Lloyd’s enquiring mind thought there had to be a lot more information about this little spoken nor little written tragedy.
The lead investigator was Cyril Wilde who died in a plane accident at Hong Kong in 1947. All Wilde’s documentation re Alexandra Hospital was also lost. The incident was closed!
Lloyd was able to track down four of the five persons who presented Affidavits.
The Advancing Japanese were the 18th Battalion, 55th Regiment and 65th Battalions – all veterans of Japan’s invasion of China in 1937. They were hardened soldiers and knew victory of Singapore was almost theres!
Captain Richard Waller RA, one of the five survivors of the sisters’ quarters massacre on 15 February ,1942.
Location of Alexandra Hospital - Singapore & Clean up Party February 1942 (exact)
