Home World War Two Stories from the War Soldier – Sanderson, John Leslie – Silence Broken

Soldier – Sanderson, John Leslie – Silence Broken

January 1944

South Yorkshire Times, January 8, 1944

Silence Broken

A silence of nearly two years was broken last Thursday, when Mrs. J. L. Sanderson received a postcard from a Japanese prison camp from her husband, Sergt. John Leslie Sanderson, R.A.M.C., younger son of Mr. and Mrs. P. Sanderson, of Woodcrest, Warren Vale Road.

Sergt. Sanderson was reported missing at the fall of Singapore and 16 months later his wife heard that he was a prisoner, but the post card was the first communication she had received direct from him.  The card which had been written on August 20th, said that Sergt. Sanderson was in the best of health and that so far he had received three letters from his mother and one from his wife.

Sergt. Sanderson is 26.  He is an old pupil of Wath Victoria School and before joining the forces in March, 1940, was employed in the offices of the Barnsley British Co-operative Society.  He was serving with a hygiene section of the R.A.M.C. in Malaya for a month before the Japanese occupation.