After spending his first year at the Signals Training Regiment John was posted on 25 August 1941 to 137 Field Regiment Royal Artillery, stationed at Larkhill on the Salisbury Plain. His army number was 1108099 , his job a signaller on the 25 pounder field guns.

On 29 August 1941 he was granted embarkation leave for one week and picked up his pay and ration allowance amounting to £2 and the necessary return rail ticket from Salisbury to Wylde Green, to visit his now pregnant wife Elsie. The next time John was to see her was on 20 October 1945.

This is an incredible story of a British Rail ticket and its journey in 1941 from Wylde Green Station to Singapore, Malaya and Thailand, eventually returning back to the UK four years after issue.

Along the way , it sampled the delights of Cape Town, the hostile environment of the Malayan jungle, the horrors of working and surviving in various Japanese POW camps in Malaya and Thailand, and finally the joy of reunion with its owner’s wife and child.

John’s story has been compiled and edited by his son Michael Bennetts.

Please get in touch if you’d like to buy a copy (£10) or borrow the Friends’ copy.