|
|
EADIE NORMAN MENZIES |
Lieutenant Colonel VX14845 2/2 Casualty Clearing Station. |
|
Norman Menzies Eadie was born in Bendigo 12 October 1893.
Norman Eadie spent his early working years as an engineer and in 1920
he became a Foundation Associate Member of the Institute of Engineers
of Australia, then he chose to follow a family tradition and became a
medical doctor.
He travelled to Edinburgh where he studied medicine at the famed Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he graduated in
1926. Subsequently he practiced in London as an Ear Nose and
Throat (ENT) specialist, and worked at the celebrated Golden Square
Throat Hospital in London. From 1930 to 1939 he worked in
Melbourne as an Ear Nose and Throat surgeon and at the outbreak of war
in 1939 he had an ENT practice in Collins Street, Melbourne.
He became a FRACS in 1932.
Eadie was on an Army Reserve list before the war and he enlisted soon
after the outbreak of war. In doing so, he gave up his
practice as an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist in Melbourne.
It has been difficult to put together an account of Lt
Colonel (Lt Col) Norman Eadie's military career. He did not
seek attention and spoke little about his experiences. It is
fortunate that in 1953 an authoritative book titled "Medical Middle
East and Far East" was published by Allan S Walker. Without
this written record there would have been little produced about the
Medical Services.
From records it is clear he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force
(AIF) on 11 May 1940. He served as an Ear Nose and Throat
Specialist with the 3rd Australian General Hospital in the United
Kingdom in 1940. Then in May 1941 he was in Palestine with
the 2/3 Australian General Hospital. Later in 1941 he became
the Commanding Officer of the 2/2 Casualty Clearing Station, which was
part of the 7th Australian Division. Late in 1941 it was
agreed that Australian troops from the Middle East should be diverted
to resist the Japanese aggression in the Far East.
The 1st Australian Corps, less a Division, and some base troops,
embarked from several ports in the Middle East in an operation known as
"Movement Stepsister". The movement of the elements became
very fragmented. There were three flights (convoys) and the
initial intention (by General Wavell) was to reinforce the Allies in
Malaya. It was soon apparent that Singapore was about to fall
and the destination was changed to southern Sumatra. It is a
story on it's own, that the Orcades, which travelled ahead of the
A.I.F. convoy arrived at Oosthaven, Sumatra. This
plan had to be cancelled when it was discovered that the Japs where
already in that area. The Orcades then took the A.I.F
elements to Batavia on Java where they landed on 18 February 1942
(three days after the fall of Singapore).
When the Japanese invaded Malaya in December 1941 the Dutch and the
British were already in Java. Then as mentioned above, in
February 1942, the Australians arrived from the Middle East.
The A.I.F. formed "Blackforce" under administrative command of
Brigadier Blackburn VC, former Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) CO of the
2/3 Machine Gun Battalion. The operational command wrested
with the Dutch Commander in Chief General ter Poorten. Other
A.I.F.appointments were
- Lt Col Eadie
-Commanding Officer (CO)
of the 2/2 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) was taken onto "Blackforce"
(AIF) Headquarters as the Senior Medical Officer (SMO) of the Force.
- As a consequence,
Major E.E. (Weary)
Dunlop VX259, who was second in Command of the 2/2 Casualty Clearing
Station, took over command of the CCS (part strength, with now only 3
Medical Officers (MOs), being Majors Arthur Moon NX455 and Ewen
Corlette NX350, and one Dental Officer (DO), being Captain
Jock Clarke QX6245). Dunlop was promoted to Temporary
Lieutenant Colonel.
- Captains Tim Godlee
(WX11057) and J
Goding (VX14906) respectively were the Medical Officers with the 2/3
Machine Gun Battalion and the 2/2 Pioneer Battalion. They had
also arrived from the Middle East with their units.
On his appointment to the "Blackforce" headquarters, Eadie was promoted
to Colonel (which is an appropriate rank for a SMO). The book
"Weary" a biography of Dunlop states that Dunlop was promoted to
Colonel and Moon and Corlette were promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 8
March 1942 (the day the Dutch capitulated on Java). Not one
of the above promotions is recorded on the Internet site
https://www.ww2roll.gov.au.
When the author of the present article was at the Imperial War Museum
during 2009, he stumbled across the diary of Lt Col C.W. (Peter) Maisey
(RAMC), who was the Deputy Assistant Director Medical Services (most
likely British) on Java. The diary only covered the period 9
March to 12 April. It is interesting to consider one of his diary
entries, covering the period 14 to 16 March. The thrust of
the diary entry was: - Lt Col Eadie ADMS Blackforce had returned from
Brigadier Blackburns's (Senior Australian Officer) Headquarters
appointing Eadie as Officer Commanding the No 1 Allied General
Hospital. The diary note states that the ADMS (Assistant
Director Medical Services and not named) refused to accept the order on
the following basis -
- Lt Col Dunlop had
"Made' the hospital,
he had the full support of all the staff
- His (Dunlop's)
appointment had been
notified to Australia………and
- the ADMS considered
it would be grossly
unfair to him and….staff…and
patients……
- in addition,
……………required a
young man of Lt Col Dunlop's type to be in command.
Note. It is
not clear who the ADMS referred to above was.
Interestingly, the Maisey diary note for the 14-16 March period, also
mentions that Eadie interviewed the (a) Japanese diplomat through the
help of the Swiss Red Cross Representative and opened negotiations for
a relief ship for the Australians. Not surprisingly, nothing
resulted from this approach.
Along with about 3,000 other Australians Lt Col Eadie became a Prisoner
of War (POW) on 12 March 1942 (the battle for Java concluded with the
Dutch capitulation on 8 March and the other elements on 12 March
1942). The Australian units under command of Brigadier
Blackburn were as follows:-
2/3 Machine Gun
Battalion |
710 |
2/2 Pioneer
Battalion |
937 |
2/6 Field
Company |
222 |
Company HQ plus
Platoon Guard Battalion |
43 |
105th General
Transport Company
|
206 |
2/3 Reserve
Motor Transport Company |
471 |
2/2 Casualty
Clearing Station |
93 |
Stragglers |
165 |
Others??? |
73 |
|
|
Total
(all
figures approximate) |
2,920 |
It is worth noting the
following extract from the definitive book
"Medical Middle East and Far East" by A.S.Walker first published 1953
at page 585:-
At
the end of October (1942) Lt Col Eadie, who had previously commanded
the 2/2 CCS arrived from Java.
…………we may note that in
March 1943 he had been taken to a native gaol in Batavia after he had
unsuccessfully attempted to arrange for hospital accommodation for
casualties resulting from a forced march of POWs at Batavia.
This gaol was filthy and 2,000 European POWs were crowded into a space
meant for 900 native prisoners. With Captain Goding AAMC,
Eadie tried to do something for many men suffering from dysentery ,
malaria and dengue fever, though hampered by a serious shortage of
drugs. A month later some of the Australians, with Eadie and
Goding, were transferred to a camp in the city known as "Bicycle Camp"
where the Brigadier (Blackburn) had been some time
previously. In October 1942 Eadie was sent as Senior Medical
Officer (SMO) with a working force of 1,500 Australians and
Americans…who suffered horrible conditions on board ship to
Singapore. After a few days at Changi Eadie went to Moulmein
in Burma, and became absorbed into "A" Force.
As referred to above, during 1942 about 6 parties of POWs were deployed
from Java to other locations where the Japs put them to work.
Lt Col Eadie was with the fourth group to leave Java with Lt Col
Williams (CO 2/2 Pioneer Battalion) party, known as Williams
Force. Williams Force then transitted through Singapore and
arrived in Burma in October 1942.
Lt Col Eadie was one of the older men of the Railway at 49 years of
age. It is not possible to positively identify all the camps
in Burma where Eadie was stationed. It is known that from
arrival in Burma in October 1942 and for most of 1943 he was on the
Burma end of the railway construction. Camps identified are:-
- Kunknitkway (26 kilo
camp)
- Retpu (30 kilo camp)
- Tanyin (35 kilo camp)
- Beke Taung (40 kilo
camp)
- Taungzun (60 kilo
camp)
(see The Burma Railway, Hellships &
Coalmines" by Tony Carter
and Neil MacPherson, "A Doctor's War" by Rowley Richards and "The
Survival Factor" by Rowley Richards and Marcia McEwan).
Lt Col Eadie, had poor health whilst in Burma, but in the words of
Rowley Richards (refer his book mentioned above), "…was
doing his best to cope with the RAP and sick parades…"
Another quote from "Medical Middle East and Far East" page 588 states:-
In
June (1943) cholera in the 60 kilo camp was well under control,
largely owing to the efforts of Eadie and Richards, and the men, most
of whom had recurrent malaria were sent to 40 kilo camp which was even
worse. Men were driven to work by the Japanese, and Lt Col
Eadie and Sgt T O'Brien who refused to let sick men go, were sentenced
to a month's imprisonment. Fortunately the sentence was
cancelled at the last moment.
A prisoner of War Ken Darwin 2/2 Reserve Motor Transport Company
SX10941, in his unpublished book, states.
It was May 5, 1944 and just at
dawn, I left my pap on my "bed", and
armed with my water bottle, headed due east into the rising sun, on
crutches, bound for the boiled water point. A shriek from an
unseen guard warned me I was in real trouble. With the glare
of the sun on the horizon, I had not seen him, so I hadn't
saluted! I was marched to the guard house where I now found
myself lined up with 6 others, all there for the same reason.
That group of guards had just come on, so were due for duty for four
hours and needed some relaxation! Shortly after, the guard
who had marched me up there returned with an eighth victim and we were
in business! The little saw-off runts then worked themselves
into a frenzy, screaming, kicking, punching. If they were too
short, they went back into the guard-house and got a box so they could
stand on it and reach higher. While this was all going on,
you stood strictly at attention, fingers stretched. If you
dared to curl your fingers as in making a fist, you could hear the
guards behind you click their rifles as they took them off "safety",
ready to shoot you in the back! I had a little short-arsed
runt stand off and throw the biggest punch he could muster straight at
my belly-button, so I tightened up everything and he hit a fairly solid
obstacle. His comment, in English, was "Ah! Very
strong"! and from then on, he went for broke! He stood on his
box, hit me over the head, used his rifle butt, punched me in the
stomach until I fell, then kicked me until I got up, etc.,
etc. As one tired, another would take over. When
their stint of 4 hours duty was over, I was given my bamboo crutch and
sent back to my hut. I finished my cold "pap" and reported to
the Doctor, who in turn referred me to the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)
specialist, Colonel Eadie. The results of the fun were an
umbilical hernia, a burst right eardrum, a damaged right eye and with
probable detached retinas in both eyes, not to mention the contusions
and abrasions. By the time I had had my pap, the right eye
was completely closed over. Colonel Eadie, the ENT fellow
told me that I would probably never hear again out of the right ear
because the eardrum was so badly perforated that it resembled the top
of a pepper-shaker. I spent the next several days boiling up
water, adding salt and bathing the various places. After all,
what else was there to do? The ear was a problem.
The sound of rushing water was always there and I was finding it
upsetting and nauseating. Some considerable time later, I was
lying awake at night and I heard a noise, like a squeak, when you kick
a sand-shoe into deep dry sea-sand, and all the rushing water sound
disappeared from my hearing and I could hear again. I tapped
out a morse code message onto Pat Campbell's foot to tell him I could
hear, but he was angry that I had awakened him when he had just gone to
sleep. Next morning, I went to see Colonel Eadie, the EN
& T fellow. He told me how lucky I was and that the
squeak I had heard was when the last little hole in the ear-drum had
healed itself over. Major Hobbs had accepted responsibility
for the rest of my injuries and when a small yellow-head appeared at
the side of the right eye, as a result of all the hot foments, I was
held down while he made an incision. The detached retinas
apparently re-affixed themselves more or less in their correct places.
In the papers written by Major LJ Robertson (2/6 Field Company RAE
"Blackforce") titled "The Gap is Bridged" said,-
"The
senior Australian officer, at this time, was Lt Col Eadie, the
Chief Medical Officer of Blackforce. For some reason, he was
attached to the RAF and lived in their quarters. Together
with Major Robertson, he interviewed the Nippon Commander, with the
idea of setting up an Anzac Day parade. It was pointed out
that the aid of the Nippon Navy had been effective in keeping the
Indian Ocean clear of German naval enterprise whilst the troopships
were bound for Gallipoli. This, the Commander seemed to
appreciate. The idea of honouring Australia's dead servicemen
needed no pondering. In short, permission was granted for the
ceremony, which took place on the 25th (April 1942) in the largest
compound of the jail. Lt Col Eadie addressed the troops,
pointing out that the Anzac Spirit was needed at that time, as never
before, and that it behoved every man not to let the Anzacs
down! The Commander attended the parade in his best uniform,
with all accoutrements and decorations, and with his staff.
The utmost dignity was observed; and just a little bit more began to be
understood about the Nippon mind. Australian and New
Zealanders from the RAF also paraded together with interested British
troops… probably those with relatives who had been in the
Lancashire Fusiliers. A British bugler sounded the "Last
Post" and "Reveille" calls."
In the unpublished book "The Burma Railway - One Man's Story" by Major
Jim Jacobs VX40983 8 Division Signals Eadie is mentioned a number of
times and the following are extracts:-
Date estimated to be around
first half of 1943. "The road was
under
water for a kilometre or so, and we trudged through water up in our
knees. We found men at the 40 kilo in pretty bad
shape. One man from the "Perth", who had been a regular
performer in the concert party at Tanyin four of five months before,
was hobbling around on a stick, so emaciated from dysentery that I
hardly recognised him. His only possessions were a "G" string
and a mess tin. Then I made enquiries about him from his
mates I learned that several of them had clubbed together and got a few
clothes for him, but the unfortunate fellow had a mania for gambling,
and he sold the clothes to some others, and then lost the money at
two-up to some of the more unscrupulous. A few months later
he died of exhaustion and malnutrition.
Lt
Col Norman Eadie, whom I had known in Melbourne before the war, was
the only medical officer in this camp, and while we were here Shimojo
was holding a "blitz Parade", as we called the farcical medical
examination which the Japs frequently held. The men were
lined up in three ranks, some of them almost too weak to
stand. Shimojo deciding at a glance which were considered fit
to go out and work the next day.
Occasionally
he asked a question of Col Eadie, but the result was
nearly always the same, a lot more sick men were sent out to labour on
the railway. The protests of the doctors and camp commanders
were in vain, they were powerless to prevent this inhuman treatment of
sick prisoners, who were now beginning to die at an alarming rate."
A further extract:-
Friday, 5th October (1945)
This
morning the adjutant asked me if I
would like to go home on a ship called the "Highland
Brigade". I could not say "Yes" quickly enough, and I looked
anxiously over his shoulder while he entered my name on the nominal
roll. In all my life I have never obtained so much pleasure
from watching somebody else write my name.
This
morning we heard that the Australian nurses who have just been
recovered from Sumatra are at the 14th Australian General Hospital,
which is located at St. Patrick's School, Katong, formerly the site of
the 13th A.G.H. to which many of the recovered nurses
belonged. I managed to procure a jeep, and went out to the
hospital with Lt. Col. Norman Eadie, only to find that the nurses had
just been sent to the hospital ship "Manunda"
Another extract:-
Thursday, 14th October (1945) After an
early breakfast we drove out to
the airstrip, where the din was terrific as Dakota after Dakota warmed
up. We waited about for a while before being allotted to a
plane. There were twenty in our party, which included Lt.
Col. Norman Eadie, Buster Badger and Major Robertson. We took
off at three minutes past nine, and Bangkok quickly disappeared in the
distance."
Rowley Richards Captain Medical Officer from the 2/15 Field Regiment
and later on the Burma end of the Burma Thailand Railway (and
later in Japan) has these comments about his fellow POW doctor Lt Col
Norm Eadie.- I
was with Norm Eadie on the Burma end of the line several
times. He was a thorough gentleman and did his best for the
men, though sick for much of the time himself. He arrived in
Burma from the Middle East via Java with Williams Force (from Java) and
remained with them for most of the time. He did not complain
and despite his 50 years battled on. Readers must remember
that for POW life 30 was getting old - 40 was old and 50 was very old.
Former Prisoner of War Neil MacPherson (co-author of the book "The
Burma Railway Hellships and Coalmines" published 2008 -
ISBN9780646468938 - previously mentioned) was treated by Lt Col Eadie
in one of the camps in Burma. Neil contends that, along with
others, he owes his life to Eadie, who at one stage sent him back to a
Hospital Camp, where he was able to regain some semblance of
health. He says that as he recalls, Eadie was respected by
all. Below is part of Neil Macpherson's medical record (which
is from his pay book). The record shows treatment by Lt Col
Eadie in Batavia and Burma and also Captain Rowley Richards in Burma.
As is known, the
railway was built from the south in Thailand and the
north in Burma.
It was joined on 17 October 1943 at a place identified as Koncoita in
Thailand. Progressively after that date the POWs from the
Burma side were moved into Thailand. The initial location
where they were mustered was at Tamakan (beside the concrete and steel
bridge spanning the Mae Klong River). It is not clear which
camps Lt Col Eadie was in during 1944 and 1945. But, from
another area of interest it is known that at the end of the War he was
in the POW camp at Tamuang (he was one of 69 Freemasons who met in that
camp on 18 August 1945).
FAMILY -
In the early 1930's Norman Eadie married Eileen Larkin, a
delightful lady working as the nursing sister in his medical specialist
rooms in Collins Street, Melbourne. They built a beautiful
home on 16 acres of land overlooking the Yarra River at Lower Plenty,
13 miles from Melbourne, and in 1935 Norman and Eileen had a son Edward
(Ted), who was born two months prematurely.
POSTWAR -
After the war Norman, with the help of Eileen, established
and operated a poultry farm for laying hens on the Lower Plenty
property, a hobby Norman had been involved in prior to the
war. Sadly, his wife Eileen died within a few years of his
return from the war. Norman's health was not sufficiently
good to re-establish practice as an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist,
but he did return to medical practice with the Repatriation Commission
in Melbourne.
RE-MARRIAGE -
In 1949 Norman married Lt Col Edith Butler RRC from
Adelaide whom he had met during the war, and she remained his wife
until his death at the age of 91 in 1984. During their
marriage they lived at Lower Plenty then moved to a property at Yea in
Victoria in 1954 and later to Adelaide in 1958. Subsequently,
they enjoyed a number of overseas trips together after Norman finally
retired from medical practice, which he resumed in Adelaide.
This account of another
POW Medical Officer from
the Burma Thailand Railway has been compiled by Lt Col Peter Winstanley
OAM RFD JP following reference to a number of books and with the
assistance of his widow Edith (aged 102 in 2010) and his son Dr Edward
(Ted) Eadie DPhil PhD SJD author of "Animal Suffering and the Law -
National, Regional, and International" published in 2009,
ISBN: 9781740085281.
email peterwinstanley@bigpond.com
website www.pows-of-japan.net
|