Changi Murals
With a message of universal love and forgiveness, they helped to uplift the spirits of the POWs and the sick when they sought refuge in the prison chapel.
Due to their historical significance, an international search was conducted to locate the original painter to help in restoring the damaged and faded murals.
[2] The chaplain of the regiment, well aware of Warren's religious conviction and artistic background, requested him to decorate the asbestos walls at the altar area of a small open attap-roofed chapel at Bukit Batok.
With charcoal salvaged from around the camp, he drew two murals: Nativity, which featured a Malay Madonna and Descent from the Cross in which he included soldiers in uniforms, using his comrades as models.
On 23 May 1942, Warren was lying comatose and was sent to Roberts Barracks in Changi which was converted for use as a hospital for POWs to recuperate.
So they asked him if he would do some paintings for St Luke's Chapel, which was recently converted from the ground floor of Block 151, near the area where Warren was recuperating.
[3] On 30 August 1942, at the time when Warren was preparing the draft drawings of the murals, the Japanese began an action which would become known as the Selarang Barracks incident.
It was an incident concerning seventeen thousand Anglo-Australian POWs, who were forced to vacate their buildings and be exposed for nearly five days in the open without water or sanitation for refusing to sign a "No Escape Pledge".
The lower portion of St Luke in Prison mural was almost completely destroyed when it was demolished to make a link to an adjoining room.
[8] Forgotten for nearly 13 years, the Changi Murals were accidentally rediscovered in 1958 by servicemen of the Royal Air Force (RAF) occupying the Roberts Barracks.
A reader came across a book titled The Churches of the Captivity in Malaya, mentioning about the Chapel of St Luke in Roberts Barracks and the artist's name – Bombardier Stanley Warren.
He was initially reluctant to return to restore his works due to the painful memories of war and captivity the murals would bring back to him: "I didn't immediately want to come.
"[9] After much persuasion, he overcame his fear and eventually made three trips to Singapore to restore his murals in December 1963, July 1982 and May 1988.
Charles Morris, member of parliament for Openshaw, asked the defence minister, Denis Healey, to consider moving the murals to England.
His proposal was unsuccessful when the Singapore Ministry of Defence decided to take responsibility for the murals and to keep them in good condition for display in 1969.
In addition, a copy of one of the murals painted by Warren had been brought to England and installed in the Garrison Church at Larkhill in Wiltshire.
[9] The three-storey Block 151 of Roberts Barracks (off Martlesham Road) still stands, but is now part of the Ministry of Defence's Changi Airbase Camp.
