Once the Malaya Command Battle Headquarters, the fall of Singapore in 1942 saw the Sime Road Camp being converted into temporary quarters for POWs working within the vicinity, as well as a staging post for prisoners who were sent up-country to work on the infamous ‘death railway’, the Thailand-Burma railway. Life at the Sime Road Camp was deplorable - characterised by hunger, disease and death. This artefact which speaks to life at Sime Road camp is part of the archive of James Steele, Royal Artillery (Field) who served in Malaya from January 1941-February 1942, when interned as a P.O.W at Changi until his release in October 1945.
