Interview with Colin Major
Title
Interview with Colin Major
Description
Recording of a conversation between Colin and Stuart [his son] relating to him missing his Squadron transfer to the Far East and his time Malaya. Colin Major describes extending his leave without permission and finding himself stranded with his friends. He eventually travels to Burma. While there he gets involved with selling an RAF aircraft. When posted to Singapore he contracted jaundice.
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00:27:31 audio recording
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Identifier
AMajorC[Date]-01
Transcription
Interviewer: Was that when you sold the plane? No.
CM: More or less as I said.
Interviewer: Allison can ask you the question.
Other: You sold the plane in Malaya didn’t you? Do you record this?
Interviewer: Yeah.
CM: No. Where [pause] what was the name of the RAF station?
Other: I know, it was on —
CM: Penang.
Other: Penang. Fort George or — [pause] It had a very imperial name didn’t it?
CM: Penang.
[recording paused]
Other: I’ve been there.
CM: Penang.
Other: Yeah.
Interviewer: Here’s your whisky.
Other: But I had —
CM: They were just on the island where I was. If I remember correctly there was only one town or something. I think it was called George Town.
Other: George Town. That’s right. Not Fort George. George Town. You’re right. But how did you end up there? How did you miss the troop ship? Tell us that again. From starting off in Britain.
CM: Well, here and the whole thing kicked off when we got overseas leave. So I went. I went on leave. I went home to Wigan and Ray Newbury, my good friend Ray he went home to Bristol and Geoff, I think it was Robinson, Geoff the third of that was —
Other: The Three Musketeers.
CM: He went to, was it Birmingham I think where he lived? So we all took this week’s holiday, or weeks —
Other: Embarkation leave.
CM: Thing. I think it was a week but halfway through, I know because I was visiting. Eileen and I were visiting our Douggie who was in the hospital at Hoylake.
Other: On the Wirral.
CM: On the Wirral. He was there still and we went over and you know spent an hour or so with him in this hospital. Anyway, it was while we were in the hospital that someone came along from the hospital and said, ‘Excuse me, are you —’ such a body. I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh right.’ Now, I don’t know whether it was a telegram or phone message. I can’t remember but it was calling me back from leave. So my wife went home and then got in touch with the other two, you know and I said young [pause] oh I’ve forgotten his name. Ray. Raymond. Ray. Ray said, ‘I’ve only just arrived. I’ve only had one and a half days.’ You know. He lived in as I say —
Other: Bristol.
CM: So I said, ‘To hell. We’re due back.’ And I had to report to [pause] I think it was Heaton Moor.
Other: In Stockport. Manchester.
CM: Manchester. So we got our heads together and said, ‘Oh sod it. We’re not going back at that time. We’re going to have another damned good holiday.’ You know. A damned good week or something. So the three of us instead of packing our bags and going to Heaton Moor we didn’t pack or anything.
Other: So, what year was this? ’44?
CM: We spent the latter end of ’44, about ’45, the beginning of ’45, I think and we, and we and also we decided we would, wanted extra other than what it said on the telegram. So we did. And then by the time we went to the guardhouse, signed in there was, ‘Oh, we don’t know about this.’ Gave us a billet and we, the next morning on parade there’s only about a half a dozen. We said, ‘What’s going on?’ And they said, ‘Oh yeah. You’re the new intake. Right.’ And they were sending, we were booked. We were booked to go down to go to, well to go to somewhere up flaming Iceland or somewhere on the next day. And then we were dismissed. All day to yourself. The next morning we woke up, went on parade and there were, there was three of us left in this parade and someone said, ‘Who the hell are you three? Where have you come from and where are you supposed to be going?’ We said, ‘We don’t know.’ So I think what happened was we were there for another two days. We kept sneaking, I kept sneaking home.
Other: You would be able to from Stockport. Yeah.
CM: So that, and then they said, ‘Oh well. Well, you’re not in.’ There was a party or the whole left on such a date which was the date we should have arrived there and in the afternoon or late evening or early evening I should say. ‘Right. Get your pack up.’ And they sent us by, or it was [pause] Liverpool.
Other: Troop ship.
CM: And get a boat from Liverpool abroad to Egypt or somewhere like that.
Other: But you are on a troop ship. They didn’t put you on a liner. You must have been —
CM: No, it wasn’t a liner.
Other: No. It would be a troop ship. Yeah.
CM: But we never got on it. No one would take responsible for these three —
Other: Rear gunners.
CM: Gunners. So I don’t know where we went to. Near around Manchester and they wanted to get, Heaton Moor wanted to get rid of us. Our documents were all put up with the troops that we should have been with. So there we were. No records. No nothing. The ground crew knew nothing. Didn’t know anything until they eventually found out that our records were on a boat and it would take so many days to get there and all the rest of it. So they wanted rid of us so —
Other: So you were heading for the Japanese war because the German, you bombed your way through the German war.
CM: I don’t know, Allison. That was that the, was the war abroad you know. And so we were just everywhere we went to report, ‘Where’s your documents? Where’s —?’ ‘Haven’t got any.’ ‘Right. Oh dear. Wait a minute.’ And zoom zoom disappear. Come back. Took us to see an officer and that was it. They decided to fly us out. Well, with flying we were Singapore or somewhere like that. I can’t remember now where it was but that’s how we came to be stranded until somebody said, ‘Look, forget these buggers.’
Other: But you were in Egypt for a couple of weeks weren’t you? Or a week.
CM: Hmmn?
Other: You were in Egypt for a week. Did they fly you to Egypt?
CM: They flew us. Oh no.
Other: Yeah.
CM: No. Wait a minute. We went to [pause] I don’t know. Singapore or somewhere and then they put us on a little boat. A flat-bottomed landing craft. So they shoved us on that for Penang.
Other: Oh.
CM: In Burma. Oh, we spent a nice two or three days.
Other: A nice place.
CM: Nobody bothered us. Mind you they didn’t know what the hell to do with us. So in the end Penang and George Town closed. The Army handed it, the flags, this, that and the other —back to the —
Other: [unclear]
CM: Back to the Army or something. I know but the three of us we were handing the flag over.
Other: I wish they’d taken a photograph.
CM: That was the job we got. Handed the thing over, the flags over and marched off and we went across the water to a place called, called [pause] Butterworth.
Other: That’s right. On the border with Thailand.
CM: And that’s where we were there but we did notice when we were moving, handing over that’s when this aeroplane was lying there.
Other: So you sold it in Butterworth.
CM: So we sold it in Butterworth and scooted off like hell you know. From Penang. From Georgetown to Butterworth.
Other: Butterworth is on the Thai border.
Interviewer: So how did you actually sell the plane?
CM: Well, the natives —
Other: The local Communist insurgents.
CM: The natives who were there they’d buy anything or steal anything at all that they could get —
Other: That the RAF hadn’t already wasted —
CM: Their hands on. Do you know I can’t remember —
Other: How much did you make?
CM: I don’t know. It was one bloke who had been doing this before. Oh, he’d been on this selling all sorts of wires and various instruments and things like that out of planes. They used to do it at night and this bloke, oh he was the king of the castle. But that’s about it. Just little bits.
Other: But you told me that you didn’t have your Air Force pay book so every time you turned up —
CM: Oh.
Other: And said you were three rear gunners they had to give you the money from the petty cash there.
CM: That’s right.
Other: And then when you got home you had all your Air Force pay.
CM: That’s true. That is very true. That we didn’t have [pause] we were moving from one place to another and our records, our documents, our documents were still on the boat.
Interviewer: So how did you get back from where was it?
CM: Oh, get back from —
Other: Butterworth.
Interviewer: Butterworth. From Butterworth how did you get back home or where you were supposed to be?
CM: Oh, Butterworth and then I went down to Singapore.
Other: So that would be sort of mid-’45 after VE day but before VJ day.
CM: That’s right. But I get all mixed up and then I suddenly think oh I remember such a thing. By the, by the time I’ve either made a note of it or go to tell someone I’ve forgot.
Other: But I remember you telling me when we were doing some picking up some garden stuff in France I remember you saying that you did the victory harvest.
CM: The what?
Other: The victory harvest because the RAF didn’t want you to go and bomb Germans anymore after VE day so you had to go and work on the land didn’t you just before you were demobbed you said.
CM: Oh aye. We went [pause] around about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Other: To somewhere in Suffolk wasn’t it?
CM: Yeah.
Other: Or Norfolk.
CM: We went in a lorry each morning and we were stooking. Is that the word?
Other: Yeah. making haystacks. They don’t do that anymore. They just [unclear]
CM: Well, we, oh God yeah. Our arms were bleeding like hell you know with picking them up and carrying them all to your [pause] mind you we got paid for it so —
Other: And you knew no one was going to kill you doing it.
CM: Aye.
Other: But you were, you were going out with Auntie Eileen at that point.
CM: Yeah.
Other: Because you got engaged when you were, at the end of the war didn’t you?
CM: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Other: Because she said a beautiful thing to me once. She said that you’d offered to buy her a better engagement ring and she said she wouldn’t part with it for the world because you were on two bob a day or something when you bought it for her and it was very precious. I thought that was the most beautiful thing to say. She could have had a big spandy stone later on.
CM: Yeah. Well, that was —
Other: She didn’t want it. She wanted her real one.
CM: It was an emerald.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Other: I don’t know. I can’t remember.
CM: An emerald in the middle.
Other: Yeah.
CM: Diamonds around I think. But you’re quite right. She wouldn’t.
Other: She wouldn’t let you buy a better one.
CM: Part with it.
Other: Because there was nothing better for her. No. I can a hundred percent understand that. A hundred percent.
CM: Yeah.
Other: I despise women who have big spandly things.
CM: Well, later on I said, you know she has said, ‘No. I’m not swapping it.’ Or you know, don’t —
Other: She told me that a couple of times.
CM: Any others.
Other: But do you know Uncle Colin one of the best days I’ve ever had was when you and I went up to the Air Force Museum and you showed me the Lancaster and that there was that lovely man with his son who was about fifteen and we walked around that Lancaster together.
CM: That’s right.
Other: And he shook you by the hand at the end. I’ll never forget what you said. You saw the Lancaster and you said, ‘Here she is. Here’s my lady.’ I’ll never ever forget that. And then they followed us around and you were talking it through and he said at the end that it had been, he said, ‘May I call you Colin? It’s such a privilege to have done this with you because if it wasn’t for you and other young men like you I wouldn’t be able to bring my boy around the Air Force Museum. And he’s not at all interested in history but he’ll remember every single thing you said to him today.’ And I just thought that was just so full of everything.
CM: Really wonderful.
Other: It was just so wonderful because you’d —
Interviewer: That’s my phone, dad.’
CM: Oh, it’s not your —
Interviewer: Sorry.
Other: Can you switch the telly on with it?
CM: Do I put it which way?
Other: Send you a message to President Trump and we’ll all go up.
Interviewer: I’ll take it. I’ll take it. Oh, dear. Is it still —
CM: Oh aye.
Interviewer: Oh, yes it is.
Other: Great.
Interviewer: Dad, when did you [pause], what happened? You had, was it malaria?
CM: Oh.
Interviewer: How did you manage to get that?
CM: When I was down at Singapore. I —
Other: It’s alright. I’ve got another one.
CM: It wasn’t malaria.
Other: Jaundice wasn’t it?
Interviewer: Jaundice. Jaundice.
Other: Jaundice. Yellow jaundice.
CM: Jaundice. Jaundice I had in the old days with all the spots and sores.
Other: Yeah.
CM: On my back you know.
Other: Right.
CM: And all that scratch scratch. So on a bed and then a belt around you so you couldn’t move.
Other: Oh lord.
CM: And you couldn’t move your arms or anything. Oh, it was itching. It was killing killing killing. Yes. There was something else which I’ve forgotten now. [pause] Oh yeah. And then they used to [pause] a couple of belts around under your arms strapped. It was [pause] and you just laid there and oh did all sorts of things. Any movement at all. And then about twice a day or sometime I don’t know, forget about it used to go around and say, ‘Hey up, the bloody painters are in again.’ They used to come with a brush.
Other: Oh, Gentian Violet?
CM: What do you call it?
Other: Is it Gentian Violet? The purple stuff to stop you scratching.
CM: Yeah. Yeah.
Other: [unclear]
CM: I couldn’t tell you what you said what it was but it was a purple colour. Oh God above you know.
Other: Was this in Singapore or was this in Manchester was it?
CM: That was in Singapore.
Other: Oh, right. Right.
Interviewer: So you contracted that through a bite or something.
CM: Like someone said, ‘Oh God, you’re getting better.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Oh God, don’t say you’ll disappear again with your records. I would start all over again searching for you. Well, we not searching for you.’
Interviewer: So, how did you finally get back home?
CM: Oh, by liner.
Interviewer: Oh.
Other: Blimey. The war had ended then.
CM: Yes. It had just ended.
Other: Probably a P&O one.
CM: It was the [pause] the Union Castle.
Other: That was a South African line the Union Castle.
CM: Well, the Union Castle was what I came home on from —
Other: Oh right.
CM: From Singapore.
Other: Oh that’s [unclear] territory then.
CM: Beautiful.
Other: Yeah. They were lovely. When I was, when I was little Alf Simpson’s shadow before we came to Scotland when I was two like little boys used to be able to look at a car and tell you what it was —
CM: Yeah.
Other: Grandad would say, ‘Three funnels. What’s that?’ I’d say, ‘It’s the Union Castle.’ ‘What’s the big black one? It’s the Empress of Canada.’ I knew them all at the docks.
CM: Yeah.
Other: Union Castle was the South African line. West African to the Far East.
CM: I don’t know how it is —
Other: Well, you got a luxury boat then.
CM: Oh, I did.
Interviewer: How long did that take?
CM: Oh, God knows now.
Other: Five weeks probably.
CM: Somewhere in that region. But it was lovely.
Other: Did you, did you stop off in South Africa?
CM: No.
Other: Do you remember?
CM: No. We didn’t stop off. We never got off the boat there.
Other: Suez Canal.
CM: What was it now? [pause] I forget it now.
Other: Well, you had a lovely liner. The Union Castle.
CM: Oh, it was. I mean they had taken all the best parts out —
CM: More or less as I said.
Interviewer: Allison can ask you the question.
Other: You sold the plane in Malaya didn’t you? Do you record this?
Interviewer: Yeah.
CM: No. Where [pause] what was the name of the RAF station?
Other: I know, it was on —
CM: Penang.
Other: Penang. Fort George or — [pause] It had a very imperial name didn’t it?
CM: Penang.
[recording paused]
Other: I’ve been there.
CM: Penang.
Other: Yeah.
Interviewer: Here’s your whisky.
Other: But I had —
CM: They were just on the island where I was. If I remember correctly there was only one town or something. I think it was called George Town.
Other: George Town. That’s right. Not Fort George. George Town. You’re right. But how did you end up there? How did you miss the troop ship? Tell us that again. From starting off in Britain.
CM: Well, here and the whole thing kicked off when we got overseas leave. So I went. I went on leave. I went home to Wigan and Ray Newbury, my good friend Ray he went home to Bristol and Geoff, I think it was Robinson, Geoff the third of that was —
Other: The Three Musketeers.
CM: He went to, was it Birmingham I think where he lived? So we all took this week’s holiday, or weeks —
Other: Embarkation leave.
CM: Thing. I think it was a week but halfway through, I know because I was visiting. Eileen and I were visiting our Douggie who was in the hospital at Hoylake.
Other: On the Wirral.
CM: On the Wirral. He was there still and we went over and you know spent an hour or so with him in this hospital. Anyway, it was while we were in the hospital that someone came along from the hospital and said, ‘Excuse me, are you —’ such a body. I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh right.’ Now, I don’t know whether it was a telegram or phone message. I can’t remember but it was calling me back from leave. So my wife went home and then got in touch with the other two, you know and I said young [pause] oh I’ve forgotten his name. Ray. Raymond. Ray. Ray said, ‘I’ve only just arrived. I’ve only had one and a half days.’ You know. He lived in as I say —
Other: Bristol.
CM: So I said, ‘To hell. We’re due back.’ And I had to report to [pause] I think it was Heaton Moor.
Other: In Stockport. Manchester.
CM: Manchester. So we got our heads together and said, ‘Oh sod it. We’re not going back at that time. We’re going to have another damned good holiday.’ You know. A damned good week or something. So the three of us instead of packing our bags and going to Heaton Moor we didn’t pack or anything.
Other: So, what year was this? ’44?
CM: We spent the latter end of ’44, about ’45, the beginning of ’45, I think and we, and we and also we decided we would, wanted extra other than what it said on the telegram. So we did. And then by the time we went to the guardhouse, signed in there was, ‘Oh, we don’t know about this.’ Gave us a billet and we, the next morning on parade there’s only about a half a dozen. We said, ‘What’s going on?’ And they said, ‘Oh yeah. You’re the new intake. Right.’ And they were sending, we were booked. We were booked to go down to go to, well to go to somewhere up flaming Iceland or somewhere on the next day. And then we were dismissed. All day to yourself. The next morning we woke up, went on parade and there were, there was three of us left in this parade and someone said, ‘Who the hell are you three? Where have you come from and where are you supposed to be going?’ We said, ‘We don’t know.’ So I think what happened was we were there for another two days. We kept sneaking, I kept sneaking home.
Other: You would be able to from Stockport. Yeah.
CM: So that, and then they said, ‘Oh well. Well, you’re not in.’ There was a party or the whole left on such a date which was the date we should have arrived there and in the afternoon or late evening or early evening I should say. ‘Right. Get your pack up.’ And they sent us by, or it was [pause] Liverpool.
Other: Troop ship.
CM: And get a boat from Liverpool abroad to Egypt or somewhere like that.
Other: But you are on a troop ship. They didn’t put you on a liner. You must have been —
CM: No, it wasn’t a liner.
Other: No. It would be a troop ship. Yeah.
CM: But we never got on it. No one would take responsible for these three —
Other: Rear gunners.
CM: Gunners. So I don’t know where we went to. Near around Manchester and they wanted to get, Heaton Moor wanted to get rid of us. Our documents were all put up with the troops that we should have been with. So there we were. No records. No nothing. The ground crew knew nothing. Didn’t know anything until they eventually found out that our records were on a boat and it would take so many days to get there and all the rest of it. So they wanted rid of us so —
Other: So you were heading for the Japanese war because the German, you bombed your way through the German war.
CM: I don’t know, Allison. That was that the, was the war abroad you know. And so we were just everywhere we went to report, ‘Where’s your documents? Where’s —?’ ‘Haven’t got any.’ ‘Right. Oh dear. Wait a minute.’ And zoom zoom disappear. Come back. Took us to see an officer and that was it. They decided to fly us out. Well, with flying we were Singapore or somewhere like that. I can’t remember now where it was but that’s how we came to be stranded until somebody said, ‘Look, forget these buggers.’
Other: But you were in Egypt for a couple of weeks weren’t you? Or a week.
CM: Hmmn?
Other: You were in Egypt for a week. Did they fly you to Egypt?
CM: They flew us. Oh no.
Other: Yeah.
CM: No. Wait a minute. We went to [pause] I don’t know. Singapore or somewhere and then they put us on a little boat. A flat-bottomed landing craft. So they shoved us on that for Penang.
Other: Oh.
CM: In Burma. Oh, we spent a nice two or three days.
Other: A nice place.
CM: Nobody bothered us. Mind you they didn’t know what the hell to do with us. So in the end Penang and George Town closed. The Army handed it, the flags, this, that and the other —back to the —
Other: [unclear]
CM: Back to the Army or something. I know but the three of us we were handing the flag over.
Other: I wish they’d taken a photograph.
CM: That was the job we got. Handed the thing over, the flags over and marched off and we went across the water to a place called, called [pause] Butterworth.
Other: That’s right. On the border with Thailand.
CM: And that’s where we were there but we did notice when we were moving, handing over that’s when this aeroplane was lying there.
Other: So you sold it in Butterworth.
CM: So we sold it in Butterworth and scooted off like hell you know. From Penang. From Georgetown to Butterworth.
Other: Butterworth is on the Thai border.
Interviewer: So how did you actually sell the plane?
CM: Well, the natives —
Other: The local Communist insurgents.
CM: The natives who were there they’d buy anything or steal anything at all that they could get —
Other: That the RAF hadn’t already wasted —
CM: Their hands on. Do you know I can’t remember —
Other: How much did you make?
CM: I don’t know. It was one bloke who had been doing this before. Oh, he’d been on this selling all sorts of wires and various instruments and things like that out of planes. They used to do it at night and this bloke, oh he was the king of the castle. But that’s about it. Just little bits.
Other: But you told me that you didn’t have your Air Force pay book so every time you turned up —
CM: Oh.
Other: And said you were three rear gunners they had to give you the money from the petty cash there.
CM: That’s right.
Other: And then when you got home you had all your Air Force pay.
CM: That’s true. That is very true. That we didn’t have [pause] we were moving from one place to another and our records, our documents, our documents were still on the boat.
Interviewer: So how did you get back from where was it?
CM: Oh, get back from —
Other: Butterworth.
Interviewer: Butterworth. From Butterworth how did you get back home or where you were supposed to be?
CM: Oh, Butterworth and then I went down to Singapore.
Other: So that would be sort of mid-’45 after VE day but before VJ day.
CM: That’s right. But I get all mixed up and then I suddenly think oh I remember such a thing. By the, by the time I’ve either made a note of it or go to tell someone I’ve forgot.
Other: But I remember you telling me when we were doing some picking up some garden stuff in France I remember you saying that you did the victory harvest.
CM: The what?
Other: The victory harvest because the RAF didn’t want you to go and bomb Germans anymore after VE day so you had to go and work on the land didn’t you just before you were demobbed you said.
CM: Oh aye. We went [pause] around about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Other: To somewhere in Suffolk wasn’t it?
CM: Yeah.
Other: Or Norfolk.
CM: We went in a lorry each morning and we were stooking. Is that the word?
Other: Yeah. making haystacks. They don’t do that anymore. They just [unclear]
CM: Well, we, oh God yeah. Our arms were bleeding like hell you know with picking them up and carrying them all to your [pause] mind you we got paid for it so —
Other: And you knew no one was going to kill you doing it.
CM: Aye.
Other: But you were, you were going out with Auntie Eileen at that point.
CM: Yeah.
Other: Because you got engaged when you were, at the end of the war didn’t you?
CM: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Other: Because she said a beautiful thing to me once. She said that you’d offered to buy her a better engagement ring and she said she wouldn’t part with it for the world because you were on two bob a day or something when you bought it for her and it was very precious. I thought that was the most beautiful thing to say. She could have had a big spandy stone later on.
CM: Yeah. Well, that was —
Other: She didn’t want it. She wanted her real one.
CM: It was an emerald.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Other: I don’t know. I can’t remember.
CM: An emerald in the middle.
Other: Yeah.
CM: Diamonds around I think. But you’re quite right. She wouldn’t.
Other: She wouldn’t let you buy a better one.
CM: Part with it.
Other: Because there was nothing better for her. No. I can a hundred percent understand that. A hundred percent.
CM: Yeah.
Other: I despise women who have big spandly things.
CM: Well, later on I said, you know she has said, ‘No. I’m not swapping it.’ Or you know, don’t —
Other: She told me that a couple of times.
CM: Any others.
Other: But do you know Uncle Colin one of the best days I’ve ever had was when you and I went up to the Air Force Museum and you showed me the Lancaster and that there was that lovely man with his son who was about fifteen and we walked around that Lancaster together.
CM: That’s right.
Other: And he shook you by the hand at the end. I’ll never forget what you said. You saw the Lancaster and you said, ‘Here she is. Here’s my lady.’ I’ll never ever forget that. And then they followed us around and you were talking it through and he said at the end that it had been, he said, ‘May I call you Colin? It’s such a privilege to have done this with you because if it wasn’t for you and other young men like you I wouldn’t be able to bring my boy around the Air Force Museum. And he’s not at all interested in history but he’ll remember every single thing you said to him today.’ And I just thought that was just so full of everything.
CM: Really wonderful.
Other: It was just so wonderful because you’d —
Interviewer: That’s my phone, dad.’
CM: Oh, it’s not your —
Interviewer: Sorry.
Other: Can you switch the telly on with it?
CM: Do I put it which way?
Other: Send you a message to President Trump and we’ll all go up.
Interviewer: I’ll take it. I’ll take it. Oh, dear. Is it still —
CM: Oh aye.
Interviewer: Oh, yes it is.
Other: Great.
Interviewer: Dad, when did you [pause], what happened? You had, was it malaria?
CM: Oh.
Interviewer: How did you manage to get that?
CM: When I was down at Singapore. I —
Other: It’s alright. I’ve got another one.
CM: It wasn’t malaria.
Other: Jaundice wasn’t it?
Interviewer: Jaundice. Jaundice.
Other: Jaundice. Yellow jaundice.
CM: Jaundice. Jaundice I had in the old days with all the spots and sores.
Other: Yeah.
CM: On my back you know.
Other: Right.
CM: And all that scratch scratch. So on a bed and then a belt around you so you couldn’t move.
Other: Oh lord.
CM: And you couldn’t move your arms or anything. Oh, it was itching. It was killing killing killing. Yes. There was something else which I’ve forgotten now. [pause] Oh yeah. And then they used to [pause] a couple of belts around under your arms strapped. It was [pause] and you just laid there and oh did all sorts of things. Any movement at all. And then about twice a day or sometime I don’t know, forget about it used to go around and say, ‘Hey up, the bloody painters are in again.’ They used to come with a brush.
Other: Oh, Gentian Violet?
CM: What do you call it?
Other: Is it Gentian Violet? The purple stuff to stop you scratching.
CM: Yeah. Yeah.
Other: [unclear]
CM: I couldn’t tell you what you said what it was but it was a purple colour. Oh God above you know.
Other: Was this in Singapore or was this in Manchester was it?
CM: That was in Singapore.
Other: Oh, right. Right.
Interviewer: So you contracted that through a bite or something.
CM: Like someone said, ‘Oh God, you’re getting better.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Oh God, don’t say you’ll disappear again with your records. I would start all over again searching for you. Well, we not searching for you.’
Interviewer: So, how did you finally get back home?
CM: Oh, by liner.
Interviewer: Oh.
Other: Blimey. The war had ended then.
CM: Yes. It had just ended.
Other: Probably a P&O one.
CM: It was the [pause] the Union Castle.
Other: That was a South African line the Union Castle.
CM: Well, the Union Castle was what I came home on from —
Other: Oh right.
CM: From Singapore.
Other: Oh that’s [unclear] territory then.
CM: Beautiful.
Other: Yeah. They were lovely. When I was, when I was little Alf Simpson’s shadow before we came to Scotland when I was two like little boys used to be able to look at a car and tell you what it was —
CM: Yeah.
Other: Grandad would say, ‘Three funnels. What’s that?’ I’d say, ‘It’s the Union Castle.’ ‘What’s the big black one? It’s the Empress of Canada.’ I knew them all at the docks.
CM: Yeah.
Other: Union Castle was the South African line. West African to the Far East.
CM: I don’t know how it is —
Other: Well, you got a luxury boat then.
CM: Oh, I did.
Interviewer: How long did that take?
CM: Oh, God knows now.
Other: Five weeks probably.
CM: Somewhere in that region. But it was lovely.
Other: Did you, did you stop off in South Africa?
CM: No.
Other: Do you remember?
CM: No. We didn’t stop off. We never got off the boat there.
Other: Suez Canal.
CM: What was it now? [pause] I forget it now.
Other: Well, you had a lovely liner. The Union Castle.
CM: Oh, it was. I mean they had taken all the best parts out —
Collection
Citation
Stuart Major, “Interview with Colin Major,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 16, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/52874.