Forceps : Major A R Hazelton, 2/10 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps

Small pair of forceps made from steel. Each piece has been forged from one piece and consists of a curved handle and grooved neck. The end of each arm is ridged for grip. The forceps have not been joined together at the neck. Each piece is stamped 'D'.

These incompletely made forceps were forged over a camp fire in the Nakom Paton prisoner of war camp from metal taken from the brake rod of a Japanese vehicle. One of five pairs, they were to be used by NX35134 Major Alan Richard Hazelton of C Company, 2/10 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. Hazelton was born in Sydney in November 1915 and enlisted in the Medical Corps on 25 July 1940. He was taken prisoner of war in Singapore in February 1942 and was held in camps along the Burma-Thai railway where he was the Senior Medical Officer for 'D Force' and at Nakom Pathom Base Camp in Thailand. He was made the eye specialist for the camp owing to four months training in ophthalmology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He returned to Australia after the war. The forceps were collected by 10 Field History Team for the Memorial's collection soon after the end of the war in late 1945 or early 1946.