Giblin, Desmond Vandergrift (Sergeant, b.? - d.1998)

Collection of seven letters written by 13428 Sergeant Desmond Vandergrift Giblin, 4 Pahang Battalion, Federated Malay States Volunteer Force (FMSVF) and two by his wife, written to family at home in Tasmania. Giblin was an Australian mining engineer working with the Raub Goldmining Company in Malaya when the war broke out. He enlisted in the FMSVF and became a prisoner of war after the fall of Singapore in 1942. His wife and young son were evacuated. Giblin was moved to Ban Pong Camp in Thailand and worked on the Burma-Thai railway. He survived the war and returned home in 1945. The bulk of the letters cover late 1941 and early 1942 and describe conditions and experiences of that time. Added to the collection at a later date was one diary kept by Giblin while a prisoner of war in Changi; plus six letters written between Giblin and his family during the period from 1942 to 1945. While the bulk of these letters are written to Giblin, the one Giblin writes home to his wife describes his working conditions and experiences.

• Diary of Desmond Vandergrift Giblin
• Letters written by Desmond Vandergrift Giblin to his family, 1941-1942
• Letters written to Desmond Vandergrift Giblin from his family, 1943-1945