The Last 6 Months
Title
The Last 6 Months
Description
George Milson's daily memoir of his last six months as a prisoner of war in Kranji, Singapore.
On 31 March 1945, George Milson was transferred from Changi Jail, Singapore, to Kranji prisoner of war camp. The camp, recently evacuated by hospital patients, housed 635 men in wooden huts, with 54 men per hut. George shared a small hut with 10 (soon to increase to 15) of his fellow officers.
Initially, he joined the outside working parties but soon became involved in daily duties in the cookhouse, monitoring camp rations, overseeing mealtimes, and digging up and sawing tree stumps for firewood.
Food was always a concern. Rations were extremely limited and not always up to the full allocated amount. The diet consisted mainly of rice, oatmeal, tree root, dried fish, and whitebait. The rice was often inedible, either wet or spoiled. Occasionally pineapple or coconut was available. Red Cross parcels (often held back by the Imperial Japanese Army) supplemented the rations.
He noted occasional theft of food and a time when a gunner company killed a dog and ate it; one man was demoted and others lost up to 60 days’ pay. Prisoners were supposed to be paid a daily rate which allowed them to buy extras from the canteen but pay was irregular and canteen goods were often issued out on credit.
Health in the camp was a constant concern. Dysentery, beriberi, and malaria were common. George suffered from swollen and ulcerated legs and feet, frequent stomach upsets and worms.
At night, mosquitoes invaded the inside of the huts, George did not possess long trousers, so he sat outside talking and smoking until lights out. There were frequent deaths, either through disease or work party accidents. He routinely patrolled the hospital and RAF huts checking on general welfare.
He smoked a pipe, exchanging his cigarette ration for tobacco. At other times he filled it with shredded tobacco stalk. To pass time, he read and reread letters from home. He read many books, including Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage The Forsythe Saga. In church he often read the lesson.
By late May some conditions eased, a shower was installed in the officers’ hut and Red Cross parcels began appearing.
In mid-June 350 extra people moved into camp, huts were so overcrowded that some people slept under them. The working parties began working longer hours and a night working party was introduced.
When he was loaned a pair of slacks, it was the first time he had worn long trousers. Then when a camp padre died, his kit was shared out; George inherited his slacks.
George never mentions whether information of the war outside reached into camp. However, in early August he recounts letting the RAF lads into things that he found hard to realise. He writes they were officially told the war was over on 19th August.
His daily diary ended on 6 September, but copies of letters to his family written in early September chart his sea journey home.
On 31 March 1945, George Milson was transferred from Changi Jail, Singapore, to Kranji prisoner of war camp. The camp, recently evacuated by hospital patients, housed 635 men in wooden huts, with 54 men per hut. George shared a small hut with 10 (soon to increase to 15) of his fellow officers.
Initially, he joined the outside working parties but soon became involved in daily duties in the cookhouse, monitoring camp rations, overseeing mealtimes, and digging up and sawing tree stumps for firewood.
Food was always a concern. Rations were extremely limited and not always up to the full allocated amount. The diet consisted mainly of rice, oatmeal, tree root, dried fish, and whitebait. The rice was often inedible, either wet or spoiled. Occasionally pineapple or coconut was available. Red Cross parcels (often held back by the Imperial Japanese Army) supplemented the rations.
He noted occasional theft of food and a time when a gunner company killed a dog and ate it; one man was demoted and others lost up to 60 days’ pay. Prisoners were supposed to be paid a daily rate which allowed them to buy extras from the canteen but pay was irregular and canteen goods were often issued out on credit.
Health in the camp was a constant concern. Dysentery, beriberi, and malaria were common. George suffered from swollen and ulcerated legs and feet, frequent stomach upsets and worms.
At night, mosquitoes invaded the inside of the huts, George did not possess long trousers, so he sat outside talking and smoking until lights out. There were frequent deaths, either through disease or work party accidents. He routinely patrolled the hospital and RAF huts checking on general welfare.
He smoked a pipe, exchanging his cigarette ration for tobacco. At other times he filled it with shredded tobacco stalk. To pass time, he read and reread letters from home. He read many books, including Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage The Forsythe Saga. In church he often read the lesson.
By late May some conditions eased, a shower was installed in the officers’ hut and Red Cross parcels began appearing.
In mid-June 350 extra people moved into camp, huts were so overcrowded that some people slept under them. The working parties began working longer hours and a night working party was introduced.
When he was loaned a pair of slacks, it was the first time he had worn long trousers. Then when a camp padre died, his kit was shared out; George inherited his slacks.
George never mentions whether information of the war outside reached into camp. However, in early August he recounts letting the RAF lads into things that he found hard to realise. He writes they were officially told the war was over on 19th August.
His daily diary ended on 6 September, but copies of letters to his family written in early September chart his sea journey home.
Creator
Date
1945
Spatial Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
26 typewritten sheets
19 handwritten sheets
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
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.
Identifier
YMilsonGW937875v1,
YMilsonGW937875v1-Transcript
YMilsonGW937875v1-Transcript
Collection
Citation
George Milson, “The Last 6 Months,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 17, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/55879.