Lieutenant W J B Johnson RNVR

Photocopies of nine letters (8mss, 1ts) written to his family between September 1940 and September 1942, the majority describing his experiences following the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941, initially as a canning officer in the Department of Agriculture in Johore and then as an RNVR officer in the naval tug St Breock, which was sunk on 14 February 1942 while en route from Singapore to Sumatra. One letter gives a graphic account of how he continued his voyage, proceeding from island to island by small boat, and was eventually evacuated from Sumatra to Ceylon in a British warship, while the correspondence generally throws useful light on the reactions of the British and local communities to the Japanese invasion of Malaya. Other letters in the collection contain his eye-witness accounts of the centenary celebrations in Sarawak in September 1940 and of a crash landing in the Ceylon jungle in September 1942.

<p>IWM: Sound Archive, Ref 6189/02</p>

Unrestricted

William Johnson, who was born in October 1909, went to Malaya in 1936 as a colonial civil servant attached to the Department of Agriculture in the post of canning officer, with the task of reorganising and upgrading the canning industry. From 1937 he was stationed in Johore Bahru and joined the RNVR as a Sub-Lieutenant, but on the outbreak of war his job was classed as a reserved occupation and he was not therefore mobilised. It was not until a few weeks before the fall of Singapore that he was able to report for naval duty and was appointed engineer officer in the naval ocean-going tug St Breock. The tug left Singapore for Sumatra on 13 (?11) February 1942, but was sunk by bombing the following day. Johnson survived the attack, proceeded by small boat to Sumatra and was eventually evacuated from there to Ceylon in a British Warship. The collection is comprised of photostat copies of eight manuscript (and one in typescript) letters, which Johnson wrote to his wife and parents between 1940 and 1942, the majority relating to his experiences from the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya up to his arrival in Ceylon.