| Accession Number | PR02013 |
|---|---|
| Collection type | Private Record |
| Record type | Collection |
| Measurement | 4 wallets: 10 cm |
| Object type | Letter, Souvenir, Photograph |
| Maker |
Bloomfield, John Anthony |
| Place made | At sea, Hong Kong, Japan: Kure, Korea |
| Date made | 1953-1954 |
| Access | Open |
| Conflict |
Korea, 1950-1953 |
| Copying Provisions | Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction. |
Bloomfield, John Anthony (Surgeon-Lieutenant, b.1926)
Description
Letters written by Surgeon-Lieutenant John Anthony Bloomfield, RAN, to his wife and daughter, during October 1953 - July 1964, while serving as a ship's doctor on the frigate HMAS Murchison during UN peacekeeping operation in Korea. The letters provide an excellent insight into the day to day life on board ship, the minutiae of professional medical duties (including his particular concern with VD cases), descriptions of Hong Kong, Sasebon (Japan) and Yong Pyong-Do (an island off west coast of Korea). They also express his clearly felt sense of separation from his wife.
Additional material includes a letter (dated 21 May 1954) written in an unwittingly humorous parody of English prose by Surgeon-Lieutenant Bloomfield's Hong Kong tailor; a US Navy souvenir certificate (dated 17 December 1953 and attached to the letter written 19 December 1953) commemorating Surgeon-Lieutenant's status as "Honorary Submariner", following his 'dive' in the USS Pickerel (SS524), four Hong Kong Tramways tickets, photographs and negatives belonging to Bloomfield (including images of a 'crossing the line' ceremony and various ephemera he collected while in Hong Kong and Japan.