Burma Railway - Pratchia Camp?

[bugbear]

I have just found out about, downloaded and transcribed the "Liberation Questionnaire" for my SO's father.

http://www.cofepow.org.uk/lq.images/liberation_qs.php

I have worked through the list of camps he was held in (and that he mis-spelt) but I'm stumped by the last one;

The details are:

Name: Pratchia
Dates: March 1945 - Sept 1945
Camp Leader: R.S.M Christopher
Detachment or Block leader: R.S.M. Sewell

Any help in decoding/locating  "Pratchia" would be gratefully received.

(there are many lists of camp of the web e.g.
http://www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/asia_thailand2.html
)

 BugBear

[bugbear]

So far I've found a couple of (different) candidates:

http://www.fepow-community.org.uk/monthly_Revue/html/repatriation_2.htm

Says:

"Keith - Hi Team, For Pratchi, read Prachuap Khiri Khan, on the Thai or Siam side of the Isthmus of Kra, it also served as the main hospital camp for POWs like my father who worked on the Mergui Road. The road itself ran from Mergui in Burma, to Pratchi in Siam. POWs were flown from there to Rangoon (And all the trumpets by Donald Smith)after the surrender. "

But...

http://www.researchingfepowhistory.org.uk/news/RFHG_newsletter7_%20Aug%202011.low%20res.pdf

says:
"The location of Pratchai Camp has long been a mystery
but hours of research by Terry Manttan, general manager
of the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre (TBRC), helped
us fi nd it. It turned out to be just where father had said,
near the French-Indo China (Cambodia) border, seven
kilometres west of Saraburi. We had been looking for
a place called Pratchai whereas, in fact, the camp was
named after the temple, Wat Pra Phutta Chai which is
known as Wat Pra Chai for short."

   BugBear

[bugbear]

It appears that the commonest spelling (by prisoners) was "Pratchai"

Found this helpful description:

"The name of this camp was PRATCHAI, and it was situated at the foot of hilly country, where we were employed blasting rock to make an underground ammo dump for Japanese position (I think). Nearby the camp vas a high rounded hill, at the base of which was a very large cave, in which was built a Pagoda. There was also a monastery and a well which was always filled with pure spring water. It is said that Buddha, during his travels, slept in this cave, and drank from the spring. Hence the Pagoda etc."

   BugBear

[GeoffTurner]

This might be an old thread but I thought I would add that my father's first letter home to Australia after the war was from Pratchai camp on 30 Aug 1945. In it he said he was "in good health", which may have been just to calm the fears of his loved ones. He spent most of his time in captivity on the Burma Railway but told me not long before he died in 1982 (he refused to talk about the war when I was younger) that when the war ended he was in an area north of Bangkok (which checks out) and was given a handgun and sent to Bangkok to act as a de facto policeman because the Thai civil forces and then the Japanese military forces had ceased to function. I don't think he did that for long. But he must have been in reasonable health to be given that job. He was eventually flown back to Singapore and put on a hospital ship home. Geoff Turner

[GeoffTurner]

For those still interested in Pratchai camp, the book "Bamboo Doctor" by Stanley S. Pavillard,  published in 1960, includes the recollections of a POW medico known as “Pav”. He was attached to Malayan Volunteer Force POWs, known as “Vultures”, in a work party of British and Australian POWs which left Tamuang on 12 May 1945 for Pratchai. He stayed with them at Pratchai until the end of the war. A summary of his recollections can be found here: https://2nd4thmgb.com.au/camp/pratchai-thailand/

I have recently completed a 75-page Word document with information from my father's letters, his battalion history, material from the Australian War Memorial etc, and found the Pavillard material useful in filling in a gap. I knew my father was at Tamuang on 28 Mar 1945 but didn't know how he came to be at Pratchai at the end of he war.

Geoff Turner