HARDY Henry Joseph VX63626 B Coy [F Force]
Uncle Harry Hardy’s Journey
Geoff Peterson, Glenelg South, South Australia
As a youngster aged 8, I remember one of the saddest times in my life was together with my Parents and Grandparents I went to the Princes Pier, Port Melbourne on Sunday 30th September 1945 to meet the Hospital Ship Oranjes returning from Singapore with the surviving POW’s from the Siam-Burma Railway.
We had the expectations that my Uncle Harry Hardy VX63626, a POW, was on the ship. We watched those disabled and handicapped POW’s that had to be carried into the Army Ambulances, which held two patients. They left the doors open so everyone could see them and they could see they were safe home once more. I remember Nanna and Grandpa eagerly searching the faces of all those crippled and injured soldiers hoping to see their beloved son. After what seemed hours to our dismay he wasn’t on the ship, we realised Harry was not coming home. It was devastating for everyone. Sadly the Japanese had misled us with fake postcards and Uncle Harry had died 4th December 1943 at Kanchanaburi, Siam (Thailand) on his way back from the Burma-Siam railway construction.
The Argus 1st October 1945 “WHEN THE HOSPITAL SHIP ORANJE ARRIVED AT PRINCES PIER, PORT MELBOURNE, YESTERDAY MORNING, bearing liberated prisoners of war from Singapore, about 9,000 people were present to greet the returning men. The crowd took advantage of the opening of the gates, for an ambulance access, to burst through on to the pier…”
Five weeks later a letter to my Grandparents from the Victorian Railways (not the Army or Australian Government) confirmed their worst fears. Harry had died 2 years earlier, suffering from beri-beri and malnutrition (starvation).
For years Harry’s life on the Death railway construction as a POW haunted me, he was there for a meagre 7 months. His youngest brother, Uncle Keith, gave me Harry’s war medals for safe keeping. I planned to give them to my eldest son David, and in turn I hoped to his son Mateo, for the wider family to remember Harry’s sacrifice. I had a burning desire to find out what happened to Harry in those critical 7 months.
Keith Hardy, Harry’s youngest brother, was down visiting family at Warrnambool, Victoria in the 1980’s and his Uncle Arthur Bruce tells him a story he had at his Men’s Hairdresser shop. Arthur’s cutting hair and hears one bloke talking about his mate on the [Burma] railway who had a mouth full of gold teeth. Arthur says “It wasn’t Harry ‘Ginger’ Hardy was it?”, he (John Pike VX60455 2/29th Battalion) says “Yes, I was with him when he died”- we did call him “Ginger”. He died in my arms we were mates.
Keith went out one night to John’s farm, just out of Warrnambool, and John was milking some cows. It was a little old farm, he ran a few cows with him and his mother, he was telling Keith a few things (about the Burma railway).
He went out again and was talking to his brother, but he was too far gone to get any sense from him and they suggested come back another time. Keith returned again but John had passed on.
No amount of research in Australia was able to fill in the missing details. Nobody seemed to know anything. I read many of the books written by the Railway survivors. The family had been informed Harry was buried in Singapore Cemetery at Kranje near the Changi prison where Harry was imprisoned for about 18 months.
Then a stroke of good luck, or was it a miracle, our Uncle Keith and Auntie Jean were flying back to Australia from overseas in 1980 and they decided to have a couple of days at Bangkok. They noted there was a Tourist train trip along the death railway. They decided to take it. Arriving back at Kanchanaburi the Thai Tourist Guide mentioned “Up the road is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery with a lot of Australian graves you may like to view”. So along go Keith and Jean to view the almost 7,000 graves, which the Thais have maintained magnificently well. Lo and behold Auntie Jean sees a plaque H.J. Hardy VX63626 Private 2.29 Infantry Battalion 4 Dec. 1943 age 33. Dearly loved & sadly missed by Father, Mother & Family. The first sighting of his grave by a family member. The shock to Uncle Keith and Auntie Jean must have been enormous. This finding added fire to us, his nephews, to try and find Harry’s full story for distribution to our wider family.
After much searching we contacted Robert (Bob) Christie long serving secretary (and survivor of the Death Railway) of 2/29th Battalion A.I.F. Association. Together with Joy Derham, Membership Registrar and Ron Ferguson Hon. Secretary 8th Australian Division Association, they all strongly advised us to contact Rod Beattie an Australian at Kanchanaburi; what fortuitous advice. Rod had originated and created a Museum called Thai Burma Railway Center, specifically to provide the details of individual Australian soldiers who served on building the Death Railway. Rod Beattie’s team per Andrew Snow answered our call for help on 19 August 2014 and provided ten pages of details related to our Uncle Harry and his connection to ‘F’ Force for FREE. This authoritive information was not available anywhere else.
The three devoted and dedicated Australians in Rod Beattie (OAM, MBE, OON), Terry Manttan (General manager) and Andrew Snow (Researcher/Historian) with their wonderful Thai support team of Thailand Burma Railway Centre (TBRC) provided us with personal facts for Harry that no one else could provide. For instance where he worked at Shimo Songkurai Camp No.1, the Kanchanaburi hospital where he died, his first burial place and his final burial place.
Andrew Snow (TBRC), Geoff, Ron and Len – Hellfire Pass rail track
So two of my younger brothers, Len and Robert Peterson, and I went on this historic journey 15th -23rd November 2018 to travel the Thai-Burma Death Railway in the footsteps of our Uncle Harry to recognise the 75th Anniversary of the death of our dearly beloved Uncle Harry Hardy VX63626 of the 2/29th Battalion.
This period coincided with Armistice Day 11th November 2018 and the anniversary of his death 4th December 1943 at Kanchanaburi. By a stroke of further good fortune it also occurred when the wonderful Thais held a “Light and Sound Concert” 19th -20th November for Peace at the real bridge over the River Kwai. This was not the fictitious bridge of Hollywood fame, but the crossing point of the 7,000 POW’s (3,666 Australians and 3,400 British troops) which included Harry’s 1,800 Australians of ‘F’ Force. Leaving Ban Pong 27 April 1943 arriving Shimo Songkurai 17 May 1943.
Our journey of peace followed in Harry’s footsteps of the 300 km in 19 days that his group of 1800 Aussies of ‘F’ Force endured from Ban Pong to Shimo Songkurai (near the Burma border and Three Pagodas Pass) under the horrific and cruel conditions imposed by the Japanese at that time. By contrast we enjoyed the air conditioned comfort of a small bus with our experienced Tourist Guides and Driver. Experiencing the 35 degrees plus and 85% humidity 24/7 they had on the march was mind blowing.
This wonderful detailed tour was only possible with the help from Marita Cougle of Ballarat Travel & Cruise, Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours with Sweetway Asia and the critical detailed research of Rod Beattie and the team at the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre (TBRC).
Rod Beattie, our true Australian hero, who is dedicated to researching and maintaining the historic records of those individual Australian soldiers who served, as well as their related historic sites. These Prisoners of War under the tyranny of the Japanese were forced to help build the Death Railway.
The TBRC is a private operation, formed when little or no action was being taken by any other organisation private or government, and unfortunately appear to not receive the support or recognition they so richly deserve. Prime Minister Paul Keating was able to free up funds for the World renowned Hell Fire Pass Museum. Rod Beattie who is a Civil Engineer was given the honour and task as Project Engineer to build this Memorial Museum.
From our tour we observed that unfortunately with the passage of time, the harsh jungle environment, the neglect of necessary maintenance of the remaining railway sites, will ultimately result in the demise of these historic sites in Thailand and Burma. While other Australian military historic sites receive the acknowledgement and financial support they so richly deserve, the Death Railway is obviously sadly neglected by comparison. I fear unless the records and the individual efforts of our wonderful POW’s is acknowledged and maintained, we will find with the final passing of the few remaining survivors of their time and their immediate families that their sacrifices will disappear into forgotten history. “Lest we Forget” will become in their instance an empty promise. I am concerned the often quoted “They gave their tomorrows for our today’ will also be Forgotten.
