Tooke, William Albert

Collection relating to the Second World War service of 13135 Lieutenant William Albert Tooke, Federated Malay States Volunteer Force, Adelaide, 1945.

Wallet 1 of 1 - Wallet contains one handwritten letter written in 1945 by Lieutenant William Albert (Bill) Tooke, who was a Reserve with the Royal Artillery in Malaya and Singapore. Prior to the war, British born Tooke had been working as a chemist at the Geological Survey Department and living with his family in Batu Gajah, Malaya before his wife Nancy, and daughter Sally, were evacuated to Australia. Upon British capitulation, Lieutenant Tooke became a prisoner of war of the Japanese and was sent to work on the Thai Burma Railway. After liberation, he came to Australia to be reunited with his wife and daughter before the family returned to live in Malaya. Tooke wrote his four page letter in October 1945 from Adelaide, South Australia, to his friends Jim (William James) and Enid Clarke of Victoria. Tooke writes about the rigours of life as a prisoner of war, as well as the arrival of news that the war had ended and his happiness at being reunited with his family.

• Wallet 1 of 1 - Letter from William Albert Tooke to William James and Enid Clarke, 1945