Far East prisoners of war

The FEPOW Community has been set up to research loved ones who suffered under Japanese captivity during World War II.

Children and Families of the Far East Prisoners of War (COFEPOW) was founded in 1997 by Carol Cooper in Norfolk after a chance reading of a newspaper article about the discovery of a diary of a soldier who had died working on the Burma Railway.

See Inside and explore the Museum here Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk to themselves by artists such as Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip Meninsky, Ashley George Old and Ronald Searle.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine undertook a study of British Far East POW medical art subsequent to a FEPOW oral history.

[2] An exhibition 'Secret Art of Survival - Creativity and ingenuity of British Far East prisoners of war, 1942 - 1945' was held at Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool from 25 October 2019 - 20 June 2020.

[3] Our Lady & St Thomas of Canterbury in Wymondham, Norfolk, England was completed in 1952 on the initiative of Father Malcolm Cowin - former Roman Catholic Chaplain to the 2nd Cambridgeshire Regiment and who himself had spent 3½ years in Japanese POW camps.

An exhibition to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Singapore campaign was held February to April, 2022 in the nearby Wisbech & Fenland Museum.