Identity certificate
Production date
1942
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Object detail
Description
A signed paper identity certificate, typed in red, listing personal and service details.
Classification
DOCUMENTS Identification i.d. card
MILITARY Army
MILITARY Army
Production date
1942
Production place
Measurements
Height 125mm X Width 90mm
Media/Materials description
Paper
Signature/Marks
SERIAL NO.32/1.....ARMY FORM W3050/DATE OF ISSUE.24 JAN 42.........../BRITISH/UNIT/STAMP/IDENTITY CERTIFICATE/NUMBER.QX.25482....OR RANK RATING.CAPT.../SURNAME.FINIMORE....../CHRISTIAN/NAME (IN FULL).JAMES.THOMAS......./SHIP OR UNIT.32 DENTAL UNIT......../SIGNATURE OF/ISSUING OFFICER.......Handwritten signature in ink/SIGNATURE/OF HOLDER....... Handwritten signature in pencil/Handwritten over/DUPLICATE
History and use
This document is one of a rare collection of objects and documents related to Changi and Tarsao/ Tha Sao prisoner-of-war camps which were collected and brought back to Australia by Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick Smith, a trained dental technician, after his release from captivity in Tarsao/Tha Sao prisoner-of-war hospital camp on the Thai-Burma railway during World War II.
The historic document was signed by former Ipswich dentist and mayor, Captain James Finnimore, a dental officer with the 8th Division when Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942. The signing of these documents was prompted by the well-documented escape and subsequent capture of two Australian and two British prisoners-of-war following which the new Japanese commandant required all prisoners to sign a declaration that they would not escape.
Referred to as the ‘Selarang Barracks Incident’, all fifteen thousand nine hundred prisoners who refused to sign were confined to the barracks and parade ground, a space which had previously held eight hundred persons. After three days, dysentery broke out and people began to die. More pressure was exerted by the Japanese when they ordered the execution of the four recaptured men by an Indian National Army firing squad. The execution was carried out in the presence of Allied commanders on 2 September, whereupon the officers ordered that the prisoners sign under duress. Having made it clear that the prisoners were acting under duress, they were returned to their original prison accommodation areas.
As a dental technician, Sergeant Smith was classified as medical personnel and attached to Tha Sao base hospital as Resident Services Manager (RSM). Captain Finimore was Dental Officer and hospital adjutant, or registrar, under British Senior Medical Officer, Lieutenant Colonel William (Bill) Harvey. According to officers’ memoirs, Captain Finimore used a treadle dental drilling machine and also made a mixture of zinc oxide and eugenol (oil of cloves) for use for temporary fillings. Captain Finimore’s own diary records that initially, ‘work was fairly light with three hundred and fifty patients in three wards’. Later ‘the hospital grew rapidly … to two thousand seven hundred and seventy seven patients … one day there were three hundred patients out and five hundred and forty patients in’.
Tha Sao began as a camp hospital but grew to become the base hospital for about thirteen thousand prisoners-of-war. By November 1943, Tha Sao had around two thousand four hundred patients, one third of whom were Australian.
After the railway was completed in 1943, the prisoners still had almost two years to survive before their liberation. In early September 1945, Sergeant Smith and his fellow prisoners of war were ‘recovered’ from Thailand (then known as Siam). It’s likely, though not certain, that Ivan was among the same group as Captain Finimore, who were taken first to Rangoon (now, Yangon) and then to Bangkok on the first transition of their journey to Australia. He left Thailand on 6 October 1945 and from there was taken to Singapore. After returning to Brisbane, Sergeant Smith re-joined the AIF and remained in service until he reached the prescribed age for compulsory retirement on 21 July 1967. He died on 6 March 1974.
The historic document was signed by former Ipswich dentist and mayor, Captain James Finnimore, a dental officer with the 8th Division when Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942. The signing of these documents was prompted by the well-documented escape and subsequent capture of two Australian and two British prisoners-of-war following which the new Japanese commandant required all prisoners to sign a declaration that they would not escape.
Referred to as the ‘Selarang Barracks Incident’, all fifteen thousand nine hundred prisoners who refused to sign were confined to the barracks and parade ground, a space which had previously held eight hundred persons. After three days, dysentery broke out and people began to die. More pressure was exerted by the Japanese when they ordered the execution of the four recaptured men by an Indian National Army firing squad. The execution was carried out in the presence of Allied commanders on 2 September, whereupon the officers ordered that the prisoners sign under duress. Having made it clear that the prisoners were acting under duress, they were returned to their original prison accommodation areas.
As a dental technician, Sergeant Smith was classified as medical personnel and attached to Tha Sao base hospital as Resident Services Manager (RSM). Captain Finimore was Dental Officer and hospital adjutant, or registrar, under British Senior Medical Officer, Lieutenant Colonel William (Bill) Harvey. According to officers’ memoirs, Captain Finimore used a treadle dental drilling machine and also made a mixture of zinc oxide and eugenol (oil of cloves) for use for temporary fillings. Captain Finimore’s own diary records that initially, ‘work was fairly light with three hundred and fifty patients in three wards’. Later ‘the hospital grew rapidly … to two thousand seven hundred and seventy seven patients … one day there were three hundred patients out and five hundred and forty patients in’.
Tha Sao began as a camp hospital but grew to become the base hospital for about thirteen thousand prisoners-of-war. By November 1943, Tha Sao had around two thousand four hundred patients, one third of whom were Australian.
After the railway was completed in 1943, the prisoners still had almost two years to survive before their liberation. In early September 1945, Sergeant Smith and his fellow prisoners of war were ‘recovered’ from Thailand (then known as Siam). It’s likely, though not certain, that Ivan was among the same group as Captain Finimore, who were taken first to Rangoon (now, Yangon) and then to Bangkok on the first transition of their journey to Australia. He left Thailand on 6 October 1945 and from there was taken to Singapore. After returning to Brisbane, Sergeant Smith re-joined the AIF and remained in service until he reached the prescribed age for compulsory retirement on 21 July 1967. He died on 6 March 1974.
Associated person
Registration number
H50534
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