Titled “Soldier Surgeon in Malaya”, this is a war diary by former prisoner of war (POW), Dr Thomas Hamilton that was written secretly in POW camps in Changi and along the Burma-Thailand Railway. Being the first edition published in 1957, it records the good work of Dr Hamilton and his unit members during imprisonment by the Japanese. This particular copy is unique in that it contains handwritten notes by his daughter, Jean Charlton. Dr Hamilton enlisted into the Australian Imperial Forces on 17 October 1940. He went to Malaya in 1941 as the Commanding Officer of the 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station of the 8th Division in Malaya and Singapore, to support the Allied fighting troops during the withdrawal down the Malayan Peninsular. The unit members became POWs following the British surrender in February 1942. As a POW at Roberts Hospital in Changi, Dr Hamilton was in charge of a ward of about 100 wounded men. In May 1942, Dr Hamilton was sent to Burma together with many of his unit members to work on the construction of the Burma Thailand Railway. He was in the vicinity of Kanchanaburi in Thailand when the war ended and was discharged from the Army on 11 February 1946.
