Daughter Shares Account of Father’s Enduring War Trauma

Rosemary Southgate’s initial encounter with her father occurred when she was four years old. She recounted, “He walked into our house and I didn’t know who he was, so I hid under the kitchen table.” Jack Price, a soldier originally from Ketley, an area now part of Telford, endured captivity as a prisoner of war in Singapore during World War Two, where he observed atrocities committed by the Japanese. Recently, Rosemary recounted her father’s experiences to Shaun Davies, the Member of Parliament for Telford. Mr. Davies subsequently placed a wooden cross in Mr. Price’s honor within the grounds of the Palace of Westminster, in advance of Armistice Day. Ms. Southgate stated, “When he first came home from war he had terrible nightmares.” She further described the impact, saying, “It was horrible to see as a child – he would be shouting and his arms flailing. It was difficult for my mum.” Consistent with many individuals of his era, Mr. Price refrained from discussing the horrors he encountered throughout the war. Japanese forces captured him during the Battle of Singapore in 1942, and he remained imprisoned in the infamous Changi Prison until the conclusion of the war in 1945. As an acting regimental sergeant major, he was assigned to labor on the Burma-Thailand Railway, a project during which 12,000 Allied personnel lost their lives. Sarah Dukes, Ms. Southgate’s niece, commented that the war had impacted her grandfather in numerous respects. Sarah explained, “When we were little he would hold our hands and sometime his hand would twitch because of shell shock, or what we’d now called post-traumatic stress disorder.” She added, “He wouldn’t have anything made in Japan in the house because he was scarred by how they had treated him.” Jack, who had served with the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery during the conflict, resumed his employment at a foundry located in Ketley. He passed away in 1985 at the age of 74, due to bowel cancer.