Death march memorial unveiled at Kundasang
20 Aug 07
An unveiling ceremony has taken place in the English Memorial Gardens at Kundasang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to remember the British Servicemen who lost their lives in horrific circumstances when they marched to their deaths as Prisoners of War from Sandakan to Ranau in 1945.
The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment for Sabah, Datuk Masidi Manjun (left) and the British High Commissioner H E Boyd McCleary at the unveiling of the memorial
[Picture: MOD]
The monument was designed and commissioned by the Defence Section of the High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and was funded by the Sabah Tourist Board and the Sabah Branch of the Expat St George's Society. Its unveiling marked the culmination of a year long project which commenced with the installation of a flag pole allowing the Union flag to fly alongside the Malaysian and Australian national flags at the site of the Sandakan POW camp.
The memorial in the English Garden was completed in July and incorporates 641 pebbles taken from the river at Ranau signifying the 641 British Servicemen who died. The British High Commissioner H E Boyd McCleary attended the Service of Remembrance and guests included the Malaysian Minister for Tourism in Sabah and the President of the Sandakan Municipal Council and family members.
In his address to mark the occasion, High Commissioner McCleary gave an insight into the suffering of the men, none of whom survived:
"Those who faltered were beaten, those who lagged behind were bayoneted or shot," he explained. "This memorial was put in place not to right a wrong but to enhance and maintain the memory and suffering of these men."
He thanked Mr Sevee Chururucks, who renovated and now runs the memorial gardens, for all his work and assistance with the memorial as well as Sabah Tourism and the Expat Royal Society of St George who both provided funding for the memorial.
Many thousands of British and Commonwealth POWs were incarcerated in camps across Malaya and Singapore, Burma and Thailand; 2,000 were held in Sandakan. 750 of these were British with the remainder Australian; the Officers were subsequently removed to Kuching in order to make the remaining prisoners more compliant. 641 British servicemen remained with little food, clothing or access to medicines to relieve suffering.
As allied liberation forces moved ever closer, the Japanese High Command took the decision to march the prisoners in three main groups inland over some 164 miles of perilous terrain to Ranau near Mount Kinabalu. Six Australian POWs escaped and lived to relate the horrors but unfortunately all the British Servicemen perished at Sandakan, on the 'death marches', or at Ranau.