An extraordinary and moving tale by an ex-POW and last surviving member of the Gordon Highlanders regiment that was captured by the Japanese in Singapore, out now in paperback
Alistair Urquhart Knihy
Alistair Urquhart was a Scottish businessman and author whose experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II formed the basis of his literary work. His writing offers a profound look into human endurance and the psychological impact of captivity. Through his narratives, he explores themes of resilience, memory, and the enduring spirit in the face of unimaginable hardship.
Alistair Urquhart was among the Gordon Highlanders captured by the Japanese in Singapore during World War II. He not only survived 750 days in the jungle working as a slave on the notorious “death railway” and the bridge on the River Kwai, but he was subsequently taken prisoner on one of the Japanese “hellships” which was later torpedoed, killing nearly everyone on board—but not Urquhart. He spent five days adrift on a raft in the South China Sea before being rescued by a Japanese whaling ship. He was then taken to Japan and forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later he was struck by the blast from the atomic bomb—dropped just ten miles away. In late August 1945, now a barely-living skeleton, he was freed by the American Navy and was able to bathe for the first time in three and a half years. This is the extraordinary story of a young man, conscripted at nineteen, who survived not just one but three separate encounters with death—encounters which killed nearly all his comrades. Silent for over fifty years, this is Urquhart’s extraordinary, moving, and inspirational tale as an ex-POW.
