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Search more than 6 billion records
Wartime collections from around the world.
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Trace their lives through war, peace, and across continents
Trace their lives through war, peace, and across continents
Search these wartime collections and more
Search these wartime collections and more
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Getting started
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Escape, endurance, and the fight to survive:
The story of Major John Nicholson, POW
Escape, endurance, and the fight to survive:
The story of Major John Nicholson POW
Born in 1913, Nicholson was just 19 when he enlisted in 1933 and served with the Royal Engineers, HQ Malaya Command. He became a Prisoner of War in April 1943 and was liberated in August 1945.
Nicholson's WWII Liberated Prisoner of War Questionnaire reveals how, in February 1942, as Singapore faced imminent surrender to the Japanese, he was ordered to leave the island to deliver a message to an outlying island - with permission to attempt escape if he wished. Travelling by dinghy under the cover of night, Nicholson reached Sumatra, hoping to make his way to safety in India.
Unfortunately, Nicholson and his comrades were later captured by a Japanese supply ship and endured years of captivity as POWs in camps across Asia.
The handwritten questionnaire, together with official reports, is preserved in Ancestry's collections. They reveal historical events together with firsthand accounts from those years.
Now, with Ancestry’s new UK and Allies: Far East Prisoner of War Portraits and expanded WWII record collections, you may uncover powerful records, and even a portrait, of your own ancestor who endured similar trials during one of history’s most defining moments.