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Far Eastern Prisoner of War steam locomotive

This war memorial is a Singapore Naval Dockyard steam locomotive still displaying war damage but with four brass memorial plaques dedicated to the Allied servicemen Prisoners of War in the Far East 1941-1945. The memorial is located at Rutland Railway Museum in Cottesmore in Rutland.

In 2016 War Memorials Trust gave a grant of £1,300 towards woks to clean and repaint the locomotive. Works also included the removal of lacquer and cleaning of the brass plaques which were then polished before the lettering was repainted.

Singapore Naval Dockyard steam locomotive was captured along with by the Japanese Imperial Army at the Fall of Singapore in February 1942. Accounts from former prisoners confirm that the locomotive too was put to work by the Japanese often working alongside parties of prisoners from a local PoW camp unloading Japanese supply ships.

After 1945 the dockyard locomotive worked on in Singapore before returning to Britain in 1953. It continued to work on at Chatham Dockyard until retired in 1972 into preservation, initially in Ashford, Kent. Acquired by the Rutland Railway Museum in 1979, the locomotive had a poignant reunion with its fellow prisoners of war in 1986. In the early 1990s the locomotive went on loan for display at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford before returning to Rutland via a FEPOW memorial service held at Bassingbourn Barracks. Conservation works were carried out to the locomotive in 1997/8, and it has continued in occasional use at the Rutland Railway Museum as a working memorial to Far Eastern Prisoners of War, of which veterans organisations it is an honorary member. The locomotive displayed in central London in 2005 as part of 60th commemorations of the end of WW2. The locomotive now stands on public display inside the exhibition building at the museum whilst plans are being progressed to return the locomotive to steam as a working memorial to Far Eastern Prisoners of War.

The Inscriptions on the brass plaques read::
“1941 – 1945 Far Eastern Prisoners of War”
“F.E.P.O.W; SINGAPORE; Dedicated to the courage sacrifice and comradeship of Allied Servicemen who in company with this locomotive became prisoners of war of the Japanese on the fall of Singapore in February 1942; And we that are left grow old with the years remembering the heartache the pain and the tears hoping and praying that never again man will sink to such sorrow and shame and the price that was paid we will always remember every day every week not just in November we will remember them”

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM6930
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 14843

War Memorials Online: 191870

If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org

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