Meet Arthur Poskitt. This is his picture. He is nearing his eighties, and between January 1948 and June 1949 he served in Singapore as a Signalman with the Royal Corps of Signals. He shares about his time in Singapore with Chun See of Good Morning Yesterday.
This is Arthur’s introduction:
I served in Singapore as a Signalman and ran a drawing office at a village called Yio Chu Kang for about eighteen months with the Royal Corps of Signals.
My main duties were supervising line parties to repair underground communication cables and service test huts as the location of all underground cable routes were destroyed at the onset of the Japanese occupation.
While I was in Singapore I took the opportunity of taking several hundred pictures of the area through the eyes of a national serviceman. I covered the whole Island from the Causeway and the southern islands then known as Blakang Mati now known as Santosa, Paulu Brani and other islands in the area.
Pictures include army life under canvas and city street scenes which no longer exist!
What a treasure! Read Chun See’s blog for a look at Arthur Poskitt’s photographs.
2 Responses
Hi Arthur we worked together at W G Pye in the 40s before you joined the army and went to Singapore? With Jerry Duffield, Basil Emsden, Ernie Mudd etc. If you get this e-mail me!
Posted on January 6th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Hello again – some of you may recall that I earlier enquired if anyone had known or heard of my old army camp – Calcutta camp Pasir Panjang where I served in the R. Signals 1951.
Just over the causeway – at Tebrau the RAOC had a very large vehicle depot (221 VEH BN) – being a former *** airstrip – where my friend Kenneth Sutton also served
- (Ken sadly passed away earlier this year)
However should any one be interested in the war years then if you google in the following -
TEBRAU Consolidated PB4Y-2
or otherwise try
PB4Y Privateer Saga
One or the other above should then bring up a series of aerial photos taken over Tebrau JH and Singapore in which photos are shown
of a US Navy Liberator Bomber patrol under
attack by *** fighters operating out of
Tebrau. The Airstrip and a large chunk of Singapore Island are clearly visible. Sadly one of the Liberators (Privateer PB4Y-2) was shot down into the sea just off the Singapore coast with all loss of life.
The action took place during the closing months of the war – aprox July 1945
The Americans were involved in flying over 1500 miles each way on this mission and accounted for approx 8 *** fighters either
destroyed or severely damaged. A very heroic mission. Hope you find it of interest
- Best wishes – Brian -
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Posted on July 11th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
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