Wigan Album
Hollingsworth
7 CommentsPhoto: Hilary Barker
Item #: 30071
He was a handsome young man. I remember my dad telling me about him being a POW of the Japanese. They were first cousins.
Jimmy was also my uncle. He was married to my Aunty Pat and my Dad made a flat for them in the Queens at Bickershaw when they were first married. They both worked in Irlam and used the train which ran from Bickershaw. He was a very quiet man and did not speak about being a P.O.W. He once showed me a book of sketches of what had happened in the camp this had been sent to him by someone else who had been a prisoner. I do not know what happened to it. He had been a boxer in the army and maybe that helped him to survive because of his physical fitness. He was small in stature and it goes to show that when you see someone in later years you do not know how brave they have been in the past and the respect they are owed.
His mother died in January 1946 after he returned in late 1945 my dad was at the funeral and he told me that Jimmy couldn't cry as he had seen such terrible things. So sad.
Couldn't agree more Geoff - well said. Strange thing about this photo is that he has a look about him that immediately reminded me of my late father when he was young, especially around the eyes.
Yes I also remember them in the pub at Bickershaw. I remember going to visit them on the bus with mum. And then later visiting them in Irlam. I went to his funeral in Irlam as mum was too unwell herself by them but I knew how much she had loved him especially as the youngest child in the house. He used to take her on the cross bar of his bike and she never did learn to ride a bike herself. I have one or two stories of his time as a POW but you are right he didn't like to talk about it and never ever bought any Japanese products. A gentleman!
What each of us owes to these exceptionally brave young men that fought for our freedom against fascism, is beyond the scope of the imagination.
A friends father was a POW in Singapore, he also wouldn't say much about it, a television documentary shown maybe a couple of years ago stated that the government ordered them not to talk about their experiences. True or not, I don't know.