McIntyre, Hector Alexander (Private, b.1918 - d.1996)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of QX7976 Private Hector Alexander McIntyre, 2/26th Infantry Battalion, Singapore, Burma and Thailand, 1942-1945.

Collection consists of a tan coloured, ruled exercise book with blue fabric spine within a newer green-covered rebinding. The original cover retains McIntyre's personal details.
The first page of the exercise book contains design sketches for a house on stilts. Following this begins McIntyre's diary on what was originally repurposed to be an address book. The diary spans the period 9 January 1942 to 8 September 1945. Entries are almost daily up to January 1944, when they begin to become more sporadic, with the largest gap being around 5 months in early 1945.

The diary begins with McIntyre moving from Yong Peng in the Johore region towards Singapore, then into Singapore and to the perimeters of the city. The diary documents the shelling of Singapore, and the soldiers' collection and surrender of weapons on 16 February, the day following Allied forces' complete surrender. Almost every entry over the following 3 years mentions food, documenting exactly what prisoners were given to eat on a nearly daily basis for several years. The descriptions of foods provided to soldiers show the lengths that not just prisoners, but also their Japanese captors went to obtain food, with several accounts of unusual food, including prisoners being ordered to cook dog for their captors. The diary notes the rumours and headlines given to the soldiers from the Syanon times. Also included are accounts of poor relations between German and Japanese soldiers as German ships and submarines visited coastal ports. While a prisoner, McIntyre notes moving from Singapore to the Thai-Burmese border, and working in quarries mining resources to be used on the creation of the railway. Following the Japanese surrender, McIntyre notes the slow increase in rations, and their food management following their long period of malnourishment.

Following the completion of the diary, there are a series of around 50 poems written by McIntyre. The poems relate to various issues around being a soldier and a prisoner of war, with an index on the inside of the rear cover. Common topics include odes to lost friends, rations (with several poems about rice in particular), thoughts of family, and dreams of returning home. Also within this latter part of the notebook are notes about different aspects of being a prisoner of war. These include: a guide to Japanese rank insignia; a list of camps McIntyre passed through in Thailand on his way to Burma from Changi; accounts of conversations including that between General Tomoyuki Yamashita and Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival on the surrender terms of Singapore; accounts of the circumstances and speeches relating to the Japanese instructing Allied soldiers to sign the pledge not to escape; and lists of figures relating to Allied casualties in the Malayan Campaign.

McIntyre's diary contains pencil sketches of a house at the beginning of the diary and a number of song lyrics and poetry written at the back. He has also recorded birthdays for a number of other prisoners of war in this section of the diary. Other entries document information about the type and amount of rations the prisoners are being fed.

• Wallet 1 of 1 - Diary relating to service of Hector Alexander McIntyre