Major Ben Wheeler was a Canadian doctor in the British Army[clarification needed] stationed in Singapore in 1942 when British forces unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese on February 15, 1942.
He had a central role in keeping up the spirits and health of British and Commonwealth soldiers and was directly responsible for saving hundreds of lives.
Conditions in the mine and the camp were as bad, if not worse in many cases, than those experienced by POWs under Japanese control on the now-famous Railway of Death in Burma and Thailand.
After the fall of Singapore, she did not know if he was alive or dead for more than two years, when finally she received a postcard with his signature written over a date—after that there was little word until his camp was liberated by the Americans on September 26, 1945.
His daughter, Anne Wheeler, was the director of this feature length film which was released in 1981.