Newcastle doctor Tom Hamilton was a prisoner of war at Changi on Anzac Day in 1942.
In an Anzac Day address in 1958, Dr Hamilton recounted his experience treating fellow POWs at a prison camp hospital in Changi after the fall of Singapore in February 1942.
"I had charge of a ward of about 100 wounded men," Dr Hamilton said.
"War wounds apart, why should decent men rot and die for lack of the amenities and medicines allowed by the Geneva Convention?"
Dr Hamilton, a lieutenant colonel who died in 1990, said the morale of the men was fairly good, but "overall lay the depressing fear of the unknown POW life ahead of them".
He recalled "an air of sadness" seeing about 20 or 30 bearded men "visibly shrunk by the meagre POW diet".
"The sight was enough to tear one's heart out. Dysentery was starting to take its toll with starvation aiding it."
With Anzac Day only a week away, he devised a plan to boost morale.
He arranged for a "regimental band" to lead a march around the hospital, "followed by every allied serviceman who could walk or hobble".
"And so it came about that on Anzac Day 1942 in Changi Prison Camp about 500 Australian prisoners turned out as spruce and clean as they possibly could and marched through the Roberts Hospital area to the spirited playing of the pipers.
"One could feel their hearts lift as they marched. A stimulating wave of cheeriness spread through the whole area. The spirit of Anzac had been recaptured by the magic of the pipes."
Ross Kerridge, a senior anaesthetist at John Hunter Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, has been researching the war experiences of Newcastle doctors and nurses.
"Dr Hamilton was a prisoner of war for four years under the Japanese. In July 1942, he was sent to Burma with thousands of soldiers who were used as slave labour to build the infamous Thai-Burma Railway," Dr Kerridge said.
"Tom's great granddaughter Adelaide Charlton works as a specialist doctor in John Hunter Hospital's intensive care unit."
If you can identify those in the march, contact John Brereton at jbrereton@hotkey.net.au.
