George Reynolds is a survivor of a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The ordeal saw him drop to just over five stone. Soon to turn 100 years of age, he talks to reporter TOMOS POVEY of his struggle to survive all those years ago

“I WAS born George Henry Reynolds in Wolverhampton in July 1918.

My parents had 11 children and I was the eldest.

Dad’s family were originally from County Cork, Ireland, and during the potato famine they went to Wolverhampton. They worked in the steelworks. It was their jobs in this industry that

took them to Newport in roughly 1923.

I was five when I moved to Newport and went to Corporation Road School. I left school at 14.

My first job was selling copies of the South Wales Argus in the city centre.

I enlisted in the Royal Artillery at Newport Barracks in March 1937. I did so because my dad would regale me about his time in the Army. I wanted to sample it.

After I qualified as a trained soldier I got posted to Plymouth.

It was not long until I qualified to drive staff cars and vans. I also qualified to drive the Scammell gun towering lorries. I then wanted to go to India and volunteered to go. When I was in

India I learnt signalling.

In 1939 World War Two broke out.

My unit got posted to Singapore and then we were sent to some barracks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

From Kuala Lumpur we were then sent to Kota Bharu – this is where the Japanese first landed.

We had to fire at them when they were coming on to the shore.

We were not scared of the Japanese soldiers because we were trained soldiers.

Shockingly, more than 60,000 soldiers were handed to the Japanese when General Percival signed the armistice in 1942.

I was shocked at this decision. It was unexpected.

We were now prisoners of war and oblivious to the horrors that awaited us.

The prisoner of war camp I first went to was in Singapore.

I was 13st 8lb when I was taken prisoner. When the war finished in 1945, I was five-and-a-half stone.

I think that speaks for itself.

When we were prisoners, they warned us if we tried to escape our heads would be chopped off.

I witnessed a man digging his own trench and getting caught.

We were all forced to watch as the Japanese blindfolded him and made him kneel. I knew what they were going to do so I looked away.

They beheaded him.

On another occasion, they caught two and tied them back-to-back. They were then both beheaded. It was a sick game.

The life expectancy was about three months.

We had three meals a day in the beginning but it was never enough.

Sometimes you would get some vegetables with rice – but that would be it.

Later on into the war, we had less food than that.

We were used as slave labour.

After nine months in the prisoner of war camp, the Japanese started to move the prisoners to different locations. We were being moved to areas which needed workers.

I was taken to Taiwan.

I was forced to work in the copper mines. If I had refused I would have been killed. I had never been in a mine before. It was a constant battle to survive. We all had to remain focused.

I lost a lot of my friends in the Second World War.

Then in 1945 we heard a Japanese officer shouting in Japanese – but in English meaning ‘All men rest’. They had never said that before.

All they had ever said before was for us to speed up.

We were then taken from Taiwan to an American air craft carrier in the sea.

The war had finally come to an end.

When on board, we were asked to strip off and were washed down then given new clothes. We thought we were in heaven.

Then we were taken to Manila, Philippines.

I was walking down the road one day and saw British soldiers. They asked me if I wanted to go home. I rushed to the doctor’s to ensure I was fit to fly.

We got to India and then they put us on flying boats.

It took 33 days to get home.

My parents would go to Newport station on the chance that I would be arriving.

When I finally was on my way home, they did know.

Mum watched the soldiers coming off the train and she said to my father that she could not see

me. But when my parents later saw me they were so pleased to have me home.

They had not seen me in so long. I was 27 years old when I got back and soon started to work.

I had never had a girlfriend before. But soon I met my lovely wife, Dorothy.

We were very happy together and raised a family.

We had children together. We also have grandchildren and great grandchildren.

She died in 1995.

I am fortunate that this month I will be turning 100. I have some apprehension, though. I do not know what my family have planned to celebrate the big day.

When I look back over the years, I have never been afraid to talk about the horrors that I saw in war.

If you do not talk about history it gets forgotten and things get repeated.”