John 'Jack' Etiemble was born in St Helier, Jersey, CI. My father joined the army because he wanted to travel to the Far East, to see the world.

He was captured at the fall of Hong Kong, playing the last post on his bugle before throwing it down the hillside. It’s probably still there somewhere. He spoke very little about his capture.

The only info I have is from him. He was being transported to Japan on the Lisbon Maru. During his transportation the ship was torpedoed by an American submarine. My father was a lucky survivor as many others were locked into the hold and went down with the ship. After several days in shark infested waters he was picked up by another Japanese ship and transported to a prison camp in Japan.

He did tell one tale where he was nearly beheaded for attempting to steal sugar, and another of being humiliated by Japanese women after having to stand naked in front of them for a trivial reason.

Post war he was taken to Canada for recuperation. En-route there was almost a mutiny as the ship’s captain tried to feed the ex captives a meal with rice.

After his recuperation he was returned to Dover, where he met my mother. She worked in the canteens under Dover Castle, providing food for military personnel. They married and had their first child, Avril, in 1947. They had 4 additional children: Pat (deceased 1987), Marion (deceased 2015), John and myself.

My father continued his military career after the war. I believe he helped with the war cemeteries in the far east. In the 1950s he served in Hong Kong and Singapore, before returning to Wiltshire where my brother was born. Then to Shoeburyness before I was born in Rochford.

In the 1960s we lived in Germany (Duisburg and Düsseldorf), then Anglesey & Bahrain. On completion of the Bahrain tour in the early 1970s he had a choice of going to Lebanon or Northern Ireland. He chose Northern Ireland but because of the situation in Northern Ireland the family had to remain in England. He served his time out for a year before retiring.

We moved to Shrewsbury after my father secured a post with the Civil Service in Oswestry. 5 years later he retired and emigrated to Perth, Australia with my mother. During his time there he did some research and found the American responsible for sinking the Lisbon Maru. He was in the CIA but for obvious reasons will remain anonymous in this report. They met several times and developed a good relationship.

He stated that the Americans had no idea the Lisbon Maru was full of British captives. My eldest sister, Avril, was already in Australia. My parents remained in Perth until the late 1990s following my sister Pat’s passing in 1987. They returned to UK in the late 1990s and went to live in Market Weighton in North Yorkshire where they re-established contact with Arthur and Irma Laws, who we knew from Ty Croes Camp, Anglesey in the 1960s.

My parents had a good retirement in Market Weighton until my father developed dementia in his mid 80s. He was placed in a nearby nursing home before he died in 2016. We moved my mother to York as it was closer to us at that time. She passed away in 2018.