Bank clerk
Born: 1 April 1910, Singleton, New South Wales, Australia
Died: 30 September 1943, Kami Songkurai, Thailand
Father: Walter Herbert Weiss, 1869-1955
Mother: Amy Selina Blanch, 1873-1925
Australian Imperial Forces service number: NX36483
Biographical information
Harry Blanch Weiss and his twin brother Howard Glendon Weiss were born on 1 April 1910 in Singleton. The Weiss family was living in nearby Glendon Brook when the twins were born, their father, Walter, the teacher at the school there. Harry and Howard were four years old when their father was transferred to Erina Public School and do the family moved to Erina.
Newspaper articles mention Harry a few times during his schooling, including performing in an “entertainment” with other pupils from his school, and also doing a good business at the fish pond at the Wamberal Fair with a friend. Harry seemed to do quite well at school, and in First year at Gosford Intermediate High School he came second place in his year, came first in Botany class, and first in his exams in English and Botany. He sat for the leaving certificate in 1927, and in March 1928 was awarded a scholarship to Teachers’ College, Sydney, on the strength of those results. Harry didn't take up the scholarship in the end though, but instead followed his brother Howard into the Commercial Banking Company, Howard having left school in 4th year to join the bank. Harry started as a junior Clerk at Cessnock branch, and by 1931 was transferred to Merriwa branch. From Merriwa Harry was transferred to Burren Junction, then to Singleton, then West Wyalong, then Beckom branch, and lastly to Westhalle in August 1938.
Harry was the type of person who threw himself into life wherever he was. He apparently enjoyed amateur theatre and joined the School of Arts in a number of towns where he lived, he taught Sunday School at churches he didn't even attend, and moving on to a new town for work usually was greeted with great regret and generous gifts from the townsfolk, who regarded him highly.
It was while he was working in Westhalle that World War Two broke out. Harry sought leave from the bank and enlisted on 17 July 1940 at Wagga Wagga. He was placed into C Company of the 2/30 Australian Infantry Battalion, and trained at Tamworth and Bathurst. The battalion was dispatched to Malaya in July 1941, aboard the Johann Van Olden-Barneveldt, arriving in Singapore in August. After further training and participating in several battles around the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, the British Commander of the battalion surrendered on 15 February 1942.
During his time as a prisoner of war (P.O.W.) Harry wrote a diary, which was returned to Australia by a mate after the end of the war, and was his family's most treasured possession. The diary was serialised in the Singleton Argus in 1946-7, and covered from 24 May 1942 until 20 September 1943, ten days before his death. It detailed his day-to-day living and working conditions (which became increasingly appalling as he moved from camps in Singapore to Thailand where his unit was working on the Thai-Burma railway), records the names of his mates, the struggles with their Japanese captors, interactions with locals, and illnesses and deaths of fellow soldiers.
When Harry started his diary in May 1942 he was living in "Adam Park" P.O.W. Camp, Singapore. During his time in that camp he generally did lots of manual labour, working in a quarry and constructing a road. There was generally a reasonable amount of food available, though not hugely varied nor necessarily good quality, with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables available to purchase from local Chinese traders (although the Japanese didn't actually allow these purchases). Over time though the general health of the prisoners began to decline, with malaria, beri beri, tropical skin complaints and diarrhoea becoming prevalent.
In July 1942 Harry was moved from Adam Park camp to another one off Bukit Timah Rd. They continued working on road construction, which was very hard work. Towards the end of the year Harry often was sent to the docks to work as a wharfie, interspersed with days of road construction. Just before Christmas those living at the Bukit Timah camp were moved to Changi, where the conditions were worse. By January 9, 1943, Harry noted in his diary "All meals are now very scanty." The prisoners were inoculated for dysentery and typhoid not long after this. On February 28 Harry wrote "This second year of our captivity seems harder than the first and finds us more homesick, but harmony in our communal existence is really wonderful now."
The day before his birthday Harry received a letter from his "dear old Dad", which must have been a wonderful birthday present. A couple of days after that he was the joyful recipient of some more letters from family members. The prisoners passed around their letters to each other to read, and relished learning all they could of life back home.
On 7 April 1943 they were informed that practically all of the 30th Battalion (3300 from the Australian Imperial Force) would be leaving Changi soon by train for somewhere north. This move was staged over a number of days, and Harry left on 22 April, one of 27 men who were transported in the 20th truckload to the fifth train that left from Singapore Station. They travelled in a terribly cramped and hot rice truck, a journey taking five days to reach Banpong Thailand. From here the prisoners were forced to march to work camps along the Thai-Burma Railway.
The march to their destination on the Thailand Burma border began on 28 April 1943 and didn't end until 17 May, the prisoners having marched 300km. They were given very little food along the way and so were ravenous by the time they reached their camp at Lower Sonkurai. Harry was extremely sick at the start of the journey, so much so that he was one of eight selected to ride on one of two yak carts. "These carts crawled along and we had to stop them every mile or so to rush off and vomit etc." (1 May). A cholera outbreak coincided with their arrival at Lower Sonkurai (probably picked up at one of the camps along the march), and men started dying at an alarming rate. The situation was not helped by the incessant rain, terrible food and their Japanese captors not caring about their plight. Harry wrote that the cholera outbreak was finally under control on 6 June by which time over 80 men died. Harry was rarely well by this time himself, with bad beri beri, tropical sores and malaria. He spent a lot of time on light duties, often working as an orderly in the hospital, though he was still required to do a hard day's labour when he was supposedly well enough. In his last two months though Harry was often a patient himself. By 24 August it was confirmed his beri beri was so serious that he was now a cardiac case. He also had a mild cholera attack to compound it.
Harry's last diary entry on 20 September 1943 was:
"A week of terrible beri beri and I find it so hard to eat this food and have even got despondent. Then I think of our workers who have worked night and day lately (5 hours' sleep) on a little better food, but the Japs have been giving them good boiled sweet spuds and tea. Yesterday the railroad track passed the camp and the light motor skips are already rushing rails southward - we may get out of here someday. Wish I could eat and feel well. Was the only one given a shot of Vit. B1 today, so the M.O. couldn't have liked he ticker. We get no treatment except rest."
Harry Blanch Weiss died from beri beri on 30 September 1943, still a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He as buried at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Myanmar. In 1949 chairs and choir seats in the Singleton Methodist Church were dedicated to his memory.
Martin Luther King Jr said "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Harry Weiss' time as a P.O.W. under the Japanese was certainly one of immense challenge, and yet his character shone through in his diary. While what he wrote was surely sanitised - because it would be impossible to represent the horrors he saw, smelled and felt - we still can learn what life was generally like there, and how Harry responded to his treatment. Harry valued fairness and justice, was more likely to be cheerful and optimistic than complain, and kept his morals and faith throughout his captivity. He was a man of integrity who valued his mates and treated others with kindness and compassion.
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| Private Harry Blanch Weiss. From: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10299043#. Accessed 3 January 2019. |
Born: 1 April 1910, Singleton, New South Wales, Australia
Died: 30 September 1943, Kami Songkurai, Thailand
Father: Walter Herbert Weiss, 1869-1955
Mother: Amy Selina Blanch, 1873-1925
Australian Imperial Forces service number: NX36483
Biographical information
Harry Blanch Weiss and his twin brother Howard Glendon Weiss were born on 1 April 1910 in Singleton. The Weiss family was living in nearby Glendon Brook when the twins were born, their father, Walter, the teacher at the school there. Harry and Howard were four years old when their father was transferred to Erina Public School and do the family moved to Erina.
Newspaper articles mention Harry a few times during his schooling, including performing in an “entertainment” with other pupils from his school, and also doing a good business at the fish pond at the Wamberal Fair with a friend. Harry seemed to do quite well at school, and in First year at Gosford Intermediate High School he came second place in his year, came first in Botany class, and first in his exams in English and Botany. He sat for the leaving certificate in 1927, and in March 1928 was awarded a scholarship to Teachers’ College, Sydney, on the strength of those results. Harry didn't take up the scholarship in the end though, but instead followed his brother Howard into the Commercial Banking Company, Howard having left school in 4th year to join the bank. Harry started as a junior Clerk at Cessnock branch, and by 1931 was transferred to Merriwa branch. From Merriwa Harry was transferred to Burren Junction, then to Singleton, then West Wyalong, then Beckom branch, and lastly to Westhalle in August 1938.
Harry was the type of person who threw himself into life wherever he was. He apparently enjoyed amateur theatre and joined the School of Arts in a number of towns where he lived, he taught Sunday School at churches he didn't even attend, and moving on to a new town for work usually was greeted with great regret and generous gifts from the townsfolk, who regarded him highly.
It was while he was working in Westhalle that World War Two broke out. Harry sought leave from the bank and enlisted on 17 July 1940 at Wagga Wagga. He was placed into C Company of the 2/30 Australian Infantry Battalion, and trained at Tamworth and Bathurst. The battalion was dispatched to Malaya in July 1941, aboard the Johann Van Olden-Barneveldt, arriving in Singapore in August. After further training and participating in several battles around the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, the British Commander of the battalion surrendered on 15 February 1942.
During his time as a prisoner of war (P.O.W.) Harry wrote a diary, which was returned to Australia by a mate after the end of the war, and was his family's most treasured possession. The diary was serialised in the Singleton Argus in 1946-7, and covered from 24 May 1942 until 20 September 1943, ten days before his death. It detailed his day-to-day living and working conditions (which became increasingly appalling as he moved from camps in Singapore to Thailand where his unit was working on the Thai-Burma railway), records the names of his mates, the struggles with their Japanese captors, interactions with locals, and illnesses and deaths of fellow soldiers.
When Harry started his diary in May 1942 he was living in "Adam Park" P.O.W. Camp, Singapore. During his time in that camp he generally did lots of manual labour, working in a quarry and constructing a road. There was generally a reasonable amount of food available, though not hugely varied nor necessarily good quality, with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables available to purchase from local Chinese traders (although the Japanese didn't actually allow these purchases). Over time though the general health of the prisoners began to decline, with malaria, beri beri, tropical skin complaints and diarrhoea becoming prevalent.
In July 1942 Harry was moved from Adam Park camp to another one off Bukit Timah Rd. They continued working on road construction, which was very hard work. Towards the end of the year Harry often was sent to the docks to work as a wharfie, interspersed with days of road construction. Just before Christmas those living at the Bukit Timah camp were moved to Changi, where the conditions were worse. By January 9, 1943, Harry noted in his diary "All meals are now very scanty." The prisoners were inoculated for dysentery and typhoid not long after this. On February 28 Harry wrote "This second year of our captivity seems harder than the first and finds us more homesick, but harmony in our communal existence is really wonderful now."
The day before his birthday Harry received a letter from his "dear old Dad", which must have been a wonderful birthday present. A couple of days after that he was the joyful recipient of some more letters from family members. The prisoners passed around their letters to each other to read, and relished learning all they could of life back home.
On 7 April 1943 they were informed that practically all of the 30th Battalion (3300 from the Australian Imperial Force) would be leaving Changi soon by train for somewhere north. This move was staged over a number of days, and Harry left on 22 April, one of 27 men who were transported in the 20th truckload to the fifth train that left from Singapore Station. They travelled in a terribly cramped and hot rice truck, a journey taking five days to reach Banpong Thailand. From here the prisoners were forced to march to work camps along the Thai-Burma Railway.
The march to their destination on the Thailand Burma border began on 28 April 1943 and didn't end until 17 May, the prisoners having marched 300km. They were given very little food along the way and so were ravenous by the time they reached their camp at Lower Sonkurai. Harry was extremely sick at the start of the journey, so much so that he was one of eight selected to ride on one of two yak carts. "These carts crawled along and we had to stop them every mile or so to rush off and vomit etc." (1 May). A cholera outbreak coincided with their arrival at Lower Sonkurai (probably picked up at one of the camps along the march), and men started dying at an alarming rate. The situation was not helped by the incessant rain, terrible food and their Japanese captors not caring about their plight. Harry wrote that the cholera outbreak was finally under control on 6 June by which time over 80 men died. Harry was rarely well by this time himself, with bad beri beri, tropical sores and malaria. He spent a lot of time on light duties, often working as an orderly in the hospital, though he was still required to do a hard day's labour when he was supposedly well enough. In his last two months though Harry was often a patient himself. By 24 August it was confirmed his beri beri was so serious that he was now a cardiac case. He also had a mild cholera attack to compound it.
Harry's last diary entry on 20 September 1943 was:
"A week of terrible beri beri and I find it so hard to eat this food and have even got despondent. Then I think of our workers who have worked night and day lately (5 hours' sleep) on a little better food, but the Japs have been giving them good boiled sweet spuds and tea. Yesterday the railroad track passed the camp and the light motor skips are already rushing rails southward - we may get out of here someday. Wish I could eat and feel well. Was the only one given a shot of Vit. B1 today, so the M.O. couldn't have liked he ticker. We get no treatment except rest."
Harry Blanch Weiss died from beri beri on 30 September 1943, still a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He as buried at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Myanmar. In 1949 chairs and choir seats in the Singleton Methodist Church were dedicated to his memory.
Martin Luther King Jr said "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Harry Weiss' time as a P.O.W. under the Japanese was certainly one of immense challenge, and yet his character shone through in his diary. While what he wrote was surely sanitised - because it would be impossible to represent the horrors he saw, smelled and felt - we still can learn what life was generally like there, and how Harry responded to his treatment. Harry valued fairness and justice, was more likely to be cheerful and optimistic than complain, and kept his morals and faith throughout his captivity. He was a man of integrity who valued his mates and treated others with kindness and compassion.
