Foster, Frederick Ronald (Ron) (Lieutenant, b.1917)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of NX76172 Frederick Ronald (Ron) Foster, 8th Division Signals, Borneo, 1942-1945.

The collection consists of a handmade, handwritten recipe book, created by Ron Foster who became a prisoner of war on 16 February 1942 following the fall of Singapore. He was initially interned at Changi, then relocated to Borneo on 17 July 1942 where he was held at Sandakan, and later Kuching. He remained a POW until Japan capitulated on 15 August 1945

The recipe book was compiled throughout Foster’s time in Sandakan and Kuching. The POW’s suffered terribly from semi-starvation, hence writing a recipe book appears rather self-flagellating. However many prisoners did this, revealing the importance of creativity and imagination as a survival tool. Foster’s palm-sized recipe book reveals both aesthetics and resourcefulness. It has been made from two small sheets of tin, bound by wire rings holding approximately 34 pages of repurposed paper. Each page was made by splitting pages from old books, and gluing the sides together to create clean writing surfaces. Foster has used indelible pencil, his writing is tiny, and covers each page front and back. Foster’s recipes are dominated with ingredients far removed from POW rations, including butter, flour, eggs, milk, sugar, fruit, beef, chicken, lamb and vegetables. Although the fantasy of writing recipes must have been hard, it fostered not only a sense of hope that these recipes would one day be made, but strengthened social relationships. Gathering in groups, sharing and writing recipes, provided activity, where there was little to do, and an unending amount of time to do it in.

• Recipe book created by Frederick Ronald (Ron) Foster