Pond, Samuel Austin Frank (Lieutenant Colonel, 2/29th Bn AIF and POW Changi)

Places
Accession Number PR87/136
Collection type Private Record
Record type Collection
Measurement 1 wallet: 4 cms; 1 custom box: 5 cms
Object type Papers
Maker Pond, Samuel Austin Frank
Various
Place made Australia, Singapore: Changi
Date made 1915-1986
Access Open
Related File This file can be copied or viewed via the Memorial’s Reading Room. AWM315 419/032/043
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copying Provisions Copyright expired. Copying permitted subject to physical condition. Permission for reproduction not required.
Description

Collection relating to the Second World War service of Lt Col Samuel Austin Frank Pond, officer commanding 2/29 Battalion. The collection consists a 1942-1945 diary kept as a prisoner of war in Changi after the fall of Singapore; regimental roll of 2/29 Battalion; a published history of 2/29 Battalion; a handbook "A Progressive Course of Physical Exercises" (1915); a leaflet "Distribution - amongst former prisoners of War of the Japanese - of Moneys available from the Liquidation of Japanese Assets in Australia"; a letter written on Christmas Day 1942 to Pond from a fellow POW, Cyril Wild; a note accompanying a presentation to Wild written by Pond; an empty envelope addressed to Pond from his wife; two newspaper cuttings; and an obituary.

The diary contains biographical, medical (death statistics) and general notes as well as a daily record of events. Pond wrote the diary in a number of languages, but predominately French, in an effort to delay any punishment the Japanese might exact on him if the diary were discovered. The regimental roll was kept by WO1 Heath Watus RSM during the Burma Thailand railway construction and records movements, illnesses and the fate of battalion members.