Rivers, Henry – Publican was a Japanese PoW

Henry Rivers (1919-2009)

Henry Hyman Peace Rivers, was born at Stowmarket, Suffolk, one of six children. He married his first wife, Elsie, and they had three children.

During the Second World War he was a Japanese prisoner of war for three-and-a-half years in Changi and on the Burma railway.

He was called up by the Territorial Army in 1941 along with his two brothers, a fortnight before Japan entered the Second World War. He worked as a hairdresser in the Army.

The trio ended up heading to Singapore but three became two when older brother Cecil became ill in India and had to stay behind.

He recalled: “We were sent to Singapore but all our equipment was sent to Australia. When we arrived we were just given five rounds of ammunition each and sent to the front.”

In February 1942, Henry and his brother, Jack, were captured by the Japanese.

He recalled: “One day we were being marched along a road and I remember turning to see the severed heads of the six blokes impaled on sticks.

“Another time, they were marching us together down a road and I’ll never forget turning to see four British soldiers tied to a palm tree, almost dead, with hundreds of red ants running all over them.”

Henry was with a group of more than 500 soldiers taken to a prison camp in Singapore. Only 50 made it out alive.

He returned to Suffolk first as a milkman then a bookmaker,. but left for Grantham in 1962 with his second wife, Barbara.

He worked at Fenland Laundry until becoming the landlord of the Dolphin Inn in Commercial Road until 1969.

He became landlord of the Blue Horse in London Road until 1978 and continued to work in pallet yards until the age of 78.

The years in Burma had a great effect on him and ever since even banned rice from the house because it was all he had to eat during those years.