Burma/Myanmar and Thailand

A brief history of why Lorraine and John are heading to Thailand and Myanmar/Burma on Sunday 19th April 2015:

My Great Uncle, Reginald French, was a member of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion in WWII. The unit fought initially in Syria, Batavia and then Java.  In March1942 he was captured by the Japanese and made a POW.  He was later interred in Thailand and made to work on the Thai/Burma Railway where he died of malnutrition and pellagra on 21st August 1943. 
Reginald James French
Service Number: VX22666
Rank: Private
Unit: 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion
Service: Australian Army
Conflict: Second World War, 1939-1945
Date of death: 21 August 1943
Place of death: Thailand
Cause of death: Illness
Cemetery details: Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Myanmar

My Grandfather, Stan French (Reg's brother), was with the 2/22nd btn.  He was a Salvation Army bandsman who enlisted on my Mum's 16th birthday.  Bands were often attached to battalions and they gave the men moral support.  They also played marches as the soldiers practiced their marching etc.  The 2/22nd band played as the battalion marched into towns from Trawool, their training camp, to Bonegilla.  Stan was killed in Rabaul, PNG. Part of me feels we should stay in Melbourne while the Diggers of the 2/2nd btn and the 2/22nd are still with us, but there's a strong pull for me to travel to Burma this year. 

In 2007 John and I travelled to Kanchanaburi, Thailand to find Reg's grave as the war records state he was buried in Thailand. The records are incorrect. We did not know at that stage that as the POW's died, they were buried at the camps along the railway track.  Thankfully, the details of where these men were buried were recorded and after the War they were taken from those camp graves along the Thai-Burma Railway and buried in the Commonwealth War Cemeteries in either Kanchanaburi (Thailand) or Thanbyuzayat (Burma/Myanmar), depending whether they had died towards the southern end of the Line or the northern end.  In 2007 it was not possible to travel into Burma as the borders were closed to foreigners.

With Burma having recently opened  to foreigners, we've decided now's the time to head over there.  So, we're leaving on Sunday 19th April, the day after John's 65th birthday.  We're going to Bangkok for a few nights, then we'll head up to Kanchanaburi for the Dawn Service at Hellfire Pass on ANZAC Day.

The plan is to then head back to Bangkok and fly to Yangon (Rangoon) Burma and travel down to Thanbyuzayat to pay homage to my great uncle Reg.  The more we've researched Burma the more we've liked what we've seen, so we're now spending the greater part of our month-long trip in Burma.

We'll then head back to Thailand and spend just under a week down in Ban Bangniang/Khao Lak and catch up with the families we're still in contact with from the tsunami days which we're looking forward to very much.

I won't be sending any more emails so it's up to you if you'd like to follow our travels - just check in to this blog.

Cheers!
Lorraine and John