Captain W E H Lang

Papers from a scrap album relating to Captain Lang's experiences as a prisoner of war on Sumatra (Palembang, February 1942-April 1945) and Singapore (April-September 1945) following the fall of Singapore where he commanded No. 1 Company, 11th Indian Divisional Signals, Chief Signals Officer, Malaya. The papers comprise press cuttings, drawings and official correspondence and also include a ms letter(4pp) from H R Bull, a civil judge in Singapore, concerning his wife's internment on Sumatra and his children's escape to Java; ms letter(14pp) written by an Australian business man in December 1942 describing in extremely vivid terms the evacuation of Penang, the fall of Singapore and his flight to Ceylon.

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Captain Lang was called up from the Royal Signals Reserve on 30 August 1939 and after an initial posting in the United Kingdom was posted to Number 1 Company, 11th Indian Divisional Signals on the staff of the Chief Signals Officer, Malaya, at Fort Canning Headquarters. Lang arrived in Singapore in March 1941, left the island at its fall and was captured by the Japanese as his ship, the Mata Hari was approaching Bangka Island, off Sumatra. He was imprisoned there and in Palembang until April 1945 when he was moved to Changi (Singapore). He was liberated on 30 August 1945 and returned to England on 21 December 1945.