COFEPOW - News - Carol Cooper's Bassingbourn SpeechSpp

Carol's Bassingbourn Speech - 8th March 2003

I am speaking to you this morning on behalf of the members of COFEPOW, the association for the Children and Families of the Far East Prisoners of War.

Many of our members are here today and I am sure they feel as I do that an historic occasion such as this is certainly worthy of any distance we may have travelled. But many of you here are Far East Prisoners of War or are in some other way connected with the Far East so today gives us another opportunity to come together and enjoy the good relationship that exists between us all.

The reason we have come together, is for a ceremony that is the first and the last of its kind and it would be nice to think that today's date - the 8th March 2003 will be recorded somewhere for posterity as being the day the Changi Lychgates were handed over into the safe keeping of the National Memorial Arboretum. Some of you may be very aware that today's date is already very significant in the FEPOW calendar. It was on 8th March 1942 that the Dutch surrendered Java to the Japanese and many British servicemen on Java became POWs along with thousands of others who were captured elsewhere.

Unlike the Far East Prisoners of War, COFEPOW has no part in the history of the Changi Lychgates. Our only claim can be that possibly many of our fathers or our brothers, uncles and grandfathers were in Changi at some point and that possibly they may have had a hand in the making of the gates, if only just chopping the trees into logs and the logs into the planks of wood that eventually became these impressive looking gates.

It is very possible that many of our fathers and brothers, during their years in Changi, would have sadly carried the body of a friend through here to their final resting place. That was the purpose of these gates, to provide a small element of respect and dignity to the many young men who died a premature death and passed from this world into another. I am sure these gates served that purpose well. How many weary souls have passed through here I wonder, either walking or being carried on their final journey. How many FEPOWs dared to linger here for a few brief moments, in the welcome shade on their way back from burying another friend. If these Gates could talk, what tragic stories they would tell.

They are course quite unique, there is no record of any gates like these being erected in any other camp throughout the Far East. At the entrance to the cemetery where my father was buried in Burma, the FEPOWs nailed a long piece of wood to the trunk of a large tree which bore the words 'In Remembrance' - this entrance was not so impressive as these gates, but the men did the best they could with what they had. It has to be acknowledged that no matter where they were or what camps they were in, they all felt the same sentiment of wanting in some way, to pay their respects to the dead because those who died were their fellow mates, and very often from their own Regiments. These Gates are a symbol of respect, friendship and love that our fathers, brothers, uncles or grandfathers held for each other.

No matter where they were held in captivity for 3½ years that friendship was vitally important to them, it was their lifeline, and to those who were held prisoner in Changi Jail, these Gates were just as equally important.

But in spite of the role they played in Changi, and having stood on this spot for thirty years, many people here today had not heard of the Changi Lychgates until more recent years.

My father was in Changi Jail for sixteen months before being sent to Burma and I have read about it extensively, but it was only about three years ago, through our friend Don Few that I became aware of the Lychgates being here at Bassingbourn.

COFEPOW is the younger generation of the Far East Prisoners of War. Although we are not exactly youngsters ourselves, we will do our best to ensure that the generations who follow us, will hold dear the memory of all Far East Prisoners of War - as we do today.

But it is not only the memory of the men that we must try and uphold. There are many tangible reminders of their harrowing days out in the Far East and the Changi Lychgates certainly bear testament to those days. So it is very important that wherever possible we maintain these notable relics that convey remnants of the past, giving us a glimpse into this horrific chapter in the Second World War.

I think we, the younger generation, are deeply indebted to the men of Changi who, fired with compassion for their dying comrades, built these gates. Our thanks should also go to the Royal Engineers for returning them to this country over thirty years ago and lastly, of course we have to acknowledge the soldiers of Bassingbourn Barracks and the Cambridge Yasume Club for both helping to maintain them and keeping them safe until this moment when we, their families, their friends and the staff at the National Memorial Arboretum will now take over.

COFEPOW members may be relative newcomers on the scene of things, but we are learning fast and we are learning how important it is to maintain our history - a history that has touched the lives of everyone here today.

I don't know how many men passed beneath these gates during three and a half years between 1942 and 1945, but when these gates are erected at the National Memorial Arboretum, I have no doubt that the number of people who will pass beneath them in future years will far outweigh the number who passed beneath them on their way to the burial ground in Changi.

I am sure I speak for all our members when I say how much it means to us to have something very symbolic and tangible that has survived the long years since the war and how essential it is to us that these gates are cherished and safely kept. They are so relevant to the FEPOW story - the story that we want told and they will help to convey to future generations exactly how resourceful the FEPOWs were during their captivity.

Within the next two years it is the intention of COFEPOW to build, at the National Memorial Arboretum, the FEPOW Memorial Building. Already established there is the FEPOW Memorial Stone, the section of the Thai/Burma railway and the Sumatra railway. It is our hope, in years to come, that thousands of people will visit the Arboretum, walk beneath these gates and reflect upon the past - for it is a past that completely changed the lives of so many men, women and children, who all carry the invisible scars of war.

The work of the FEPOWs is almost done, the work of COFEPOW is just beginning and what better start than seeing that the Changi Lychgates are moved to their final resting place to proudly bear the spirits of so many courageous men. I am sure that the spirits of those many men are looking down on us at this very moment and they are quietly nodding their heads in silent agreement that the National Memorial Arboretum should be the everlasting "Place of Remembrance" for all our fathers and brothers, uncles, grandfathers, friends and neighbours - in fact all the brave men, wherever they were, who have come to be known as the Far East Prisoners of War.

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