Click on each photo to read an extract from Geoff’s memoirs.
On Manoora, 1942
“We went on to Singapore and arrived about the 6th or 7th of December. As we moved up the Harbour, we passed Prince of Wales and Repulse, two British battleships which had been sent out to try and dissuade the Japanese from entering the war. However, it was a little bit – it was rather late. Anyway, we berthed up near the Causeway to Malaya and again, I was lucky to have a letter of introduction to … some people called Thompson, Mr & Mrs Thompson. He was, I think, the General Manager of the Firestone rubber company in that part of the world. He had a lovely home, including a 9-hole golf course. Anyway, we had a dinner that night, quite a formal dinner. There were visitors, there were guests. It was all bright and merry and I was sent back to the ship in a car with a chauffeur … and much to the interest of my shipmates. I went aboard and went to sleep, then to be awakened by rumblings and bangings and we then realised, or were told, that Japan had come into the war. And after bombing Pearl Harbour and Singapore at the same time. And so … we didn’t have much time in Singapore. In fact, we scurried out the next day and while Prince of Wales and Repulse went up one side of Malaya, we went up the other side, the Western side, to Calcutta. Unfortunately, the poor Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk. We, fortunately, had no trouble.”