2010 Conference - Speaker and Organiser Biographies

Bernice Archer’s study of Western Civilians interned by the Japanese in the Far East during World War 2 was published in hardback by RoutledgeCurzon in 2004 and later in soft back by Hong Kong University Press in 2008. The book explores the manner in which British, Dutch and American men, women and children survived their internment experiences in camps in China, Singapore, the Philippines, Java and Sumatra.

Jeyathurai Ayadurai is the Director of the Changi Museum, Singapore, the General Manager, Singapore History Consultants and Managing Director, Journeys Pte Ltd, Singapore. As Director of The Changi Museum, he has raised awareness of the FEPOW story and World War 2 in South East Asia. The Changi Museum has received international praise for its sensitive and poignant portrayal of the war years and has developed into a significant centre of research. Jeya has worked for many years with Singapore schools, playing a significant role in reawakening an interest in Singapore's history in the war period. Through Journeys Pte Ltd, he has developed the award winning 'Original Singapore Walks', a novel way to appreciate Singapore's culture and heritage through walking tours.

Tony Banham is the founder of the Hong Kong War Diary project, and the author of several books about the Hong Kong POWs and Internees. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Australian Defence Force Academy where his thesis is on the 1940 evacuation of women and children from Hong Kong. Other current projects include a guide to Hong Kong’s Battlefields, and research into the ‘secret war’ in Hong Kong.

Rod Beattie and three of his five brothers served in the Australian Army. Having lived in Thailand for over 15 years, more than 10 of which he has spent working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as Manager of the two war cemeteries in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Rod has seen at first hand the distortion of the railway story by the Thai tourist industry. He built the Thailand Burma Railway Centre (TBRC) in order to present the true story of the railway. The museum opened in January 2003 and displays the results of his many years of research for the benefit of all who worked on the railway and their descendants.

Kent Fedorowich is Reader in British Imperial and Commonwealth History at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is author of ‘Unfit for Heroes: Reconstruction and Soldier Settlement between the Wars’ (1995) and co-editor, with Martin Thomas, of ‘International Diplomacy and Colonial Retreat’ (2001), and, with Carl Bridge, ‘The British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity’ (2003). He has also co-authored with Bob Moore, ‘The British Empire and its Italian Prisoners of War, 1940-1947’ (2002).

Dr. Geoff Gill has worked for many years at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where he is professor of international medicine and a consultant physician. Geoff has had many years of experience working with the FEPOWs who have attended the School for tropical disease checks. He has also headed the School's clinical research programme into longstanding tropical illness amongst FEPOWs, and more recently has led research into the historical aspects of POW medicine and experience.

Midge Gillies has spent the last three years researching the lives of POWs in both Europe and the Far East for her latest book. The book, which will be published in 2011, tells the stories of these remarkable men and how the skills they learnt in the camps or passed on to others made captivity more bearable and in many cases changed their post-war lives. Midge has written six books and is a freelance journalist and part-time tutor for Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education. Her father was a POW in Germany.

Dr. Rob Havers is Associate Professor of History at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri and the Executive Director of America's National Churchill Museum. Prior to moving to the USA, as a Visiting Fulbright Professor of British History, he was a Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He is the author of several articles on the FEPOWs, and the Changi POW camp in particular. In 2003 his book ‘Re-assessing the Japanese POW Experience, The Changi POW Camp in Singapore, 1942-45’ was published by RoutledgeCurzon.

Jonathan Moffatt is Chairman of the Researching FEPOW History Group. He studied at Warwick University and has taught History in Coventry, Warwickshire and Singapore. He is the co-author of 'Moon over Malaya: a Tale of Argylls & Marines' and 'In Oriente Primus: A History of the Volunteer Forces in Malaya& Singapore' [2010]. He has edited several FEPOW memoirs including 'Baba Nonnie Goes to War'. His main interests are British Malayans and Volunteer Forces, the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Plymouth Argyll Royal Marines. Jonathan has travelled widely in South East Asia and is a member of the Royal Marines Historical Society and the Malayan Volunteers Group.

Meg Parkes is a co-founder of the Researching FEPOW History conferences and author of two books about her father, Atholl Duncan 2 Btn Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, and his FEPOW diaries. A researcher at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Meg has recorded over 60 FEPOW oral histories. These interviews form the basis for a two-year Heritage Lottery-funded education project introducing FEPOW history to the secondary curriculum.

Nigel Stanley was born in Penang and evacuated to Australia after the Japanese invasion of Malaya. His father, Dr Cuthbert Stanley, and grandfather, Horace Mills, became civilian internees. Cuthbert was taken by the Kempei Tai as a prime suspect after the successful Operation Jaywick raid on Singapore Harbour in September 1943. He was the first to die undergoing interrogation during the “Double Tenth” massacre. Nigel is a retired doctor and is interested in the health consequences of captivity in the Far East.

Julie Summers is an author and historian living and working in Oxford. Following a twenty year career in the art world as an exhibition organiser she turned to writing biography. The Colonel of Tamarkan appeared in 2005 followed by Stranger in the House which examines the effect on of returning men seen from the women’s perspective. She also published Remembered: a History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in 2007 and two further books on war cemeteries in 2010. When the Children Came Home, Stories of Wartime Evacuees will appear in March 2011 and deals with all British evacuees, including those in the Far East. Julie edits the Researching FEPOW History group newsletter and is a co-organiser of this year’s conference.