Burma Railway Memorial
The Burma Railway Memorial is a memorial near Mornington Crescent tube station, in Camden High Street, London, to the thousands of British civilian and military prisoners of war in the Far East who died of disease, starvation or maltreatment while building the Burma Railway during the Second World War .
The memorial was designed by Chris Roche of 11.04 Architects,[1] following a campaign in the Camden New Journal, and features a granite slab supported by short crossed sections of wooden railway sleepers and metal rails, mounted on a white circular plinth. The slab bears an inscription, and is also inscribed with an image of an emaciated Far East prisoner of war (FEPOW) drawn by the artist Ronald Searle, who was himself forced to work on the Burma Railway.[2][3][4][5][6]
The memorial was unveiled on 21 September 2012 by John Slim, 2nd Viscount Slim, whose father, Field Marshal William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, commanded the 14th Army in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War.[7]
See also[edit]
- National Memorial Arboretum, which contains another Burma Railway Memorial with a 100 ft (30 m) section of the railway
- Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
- Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery
References[edit]
- ^ "Curtains up on 1104's Camden PoW memorial", Architects Journal, 1 October 2012
- ^ British Civilian And Military FEPOWs, War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museums
- ^ "PoW MEMORIAL: Moving ceremony that paid tribute to the brave men who suffered terribly, and who never came back", Camden New Journal, 27 September 2012, "PoW MEMORIAL: Moving ceremony that paid tribute to the brave men who suffered terribly, and who never came back | Camden New Journal". Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ "Tribute to Japanese prisoners of war" Archived 23 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine, ITV News
- ^ "Green light for 11.04 Architects' Camden war memorial", Building Design online, 21 March 2011
- ^ "PoW MEMORIAL: Ceremony was 'the best and worst of days' for Highbury man, who spent years in a forced labour camp", Islington Tribune, 28 September 2012, "PoW MEMORIAL: Ceremony was 'the best and worst of days' for Highbury man, who spent years in a forced labour camp | Islington Tribune". Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- ^ Monument: Prisoner of War memorial, London Remembers
External links[edit]
Media related to Burma Railway memorial, Camden at Wikimedia Commons
