First Aid box : Captain W C A van Beek, Royal Dutch East Indian Army

Places
Accession Number REL33302
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Heraldry
Physical description Brass, Steel
Maker Unknown
Place made Australia
Date made c 1940 -1942
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Description

Black painted steel first aid box with a hinged lid and sliding brass latches at the front. The lid of the tin has a raised broad arrow at the top and is painted in faded white lettering. Most of the words are illegible, although 'FIRST AID' can be seen. The front of the tin where the latches fasten the lid has a brass handle and is painted in the lower left corner with the name ' W. VAN BEEK, Kapt'. The inside of the lid has been divided with paint into four columns which extend half way down. The columns each have an underlined heading. The first reads 'AUSTRALIA' and has the date '27.6.40' underneath. Listed below this are the place names 'MARTIN PLACE', 'MOORE PARK', 'WALGROVE', 'INGLEBURN', 'BATHURST', 'S.S. QUEEN MARY' and 'FREMANTLE'. The next column is headed 'MALAYA' and listed below are the names 'SINGAPORE', 'PT. DICKSON', 'SERREMBAN', 'KUALA LUMPUR', 'MALACCA', 'JOHORE BARHU', 'MERSING', 'ENDAU' and 'CHANGI'. The next column is titled 'BURMA' and lists 'CELEBES MARU', 'MERGUI', '593', 'TAVOY', 'YE', 'THANBYUZAYAT', 'KUNKNITKWAY', 'MEILOE'. Under this last painted name is faintly scratched the words 'ANKAWAN' and "55 KILO'. The final column is headed 'THAILAND' but contains no list. The box is empty.

History / Summary

This first aid box is the type of box that would have been carried by a member of an Australian Field Ambulance. The place names painted inside the lid indicate that the original owner was attached to 22 Australian Infantry Brigade, 8 Division. He took part in the fighting against the Japanese in Malaya from December 1941 to February 1942, when surviving Allied troops became prisoners of war after they surrendered to the Japanese Forces in Singapore. Later in 1942 the owner took his box with him when he was assigned to A Force, a group of about 2,000 Allied prisoners who were transported by sea to Burma. Initially they worked on airfield construction before being sent to start work at the Burma end of the Burma-Thailand Railway. The last name painted inside the lid is 'Thailand', perhaps indicating that the owner died after arriving there. The box was passed to Captain Willem 'Wim' Cornelis Alexander van Beek of the Royal Dutch East Indian Army. Known as 'Johnny' to Australian and British prisoners in A Force, he was a camp commander on the Burma section of the railway. Van Beek survived the war and returned to the Netherlands taking the box with him. He married the widow of a Dutch prisoner who had died in Borneo. His stepdaughter, Trudis Dorenbosch, returned the box to Australia on behalf of herself and her sisters, saying that 'though this box belonged to a Dutch POW for a time, it seems to me to be more Australian and of interest to Australians'.