Changi gaol from the 100 metre huts

Depicted is a prisoner hanging out washing with the concrete structure of Changi gaol in the background. Griffin captured the scene in October 1944.

In 1944 all the POWs, some 10,000 men, held at Seralang Barracks and surrounds had to move to Changi goal proper, which was designed to accommodate 600 men. 5,000 men were eventually squeezed into that building and the Japanese provided materials to build 100 metre huts for living quarters and kitchens outside the gaol for the rest of the prisoners. As an officer, Griffin was quartered in a smaller hut that had been erected at Seralang just after the men had be captured and then moved to the gaol. He shared it with three other men, including two British ministers.