THE CHANGI MURALS.

By Robert Longhurst.Airframes.


When Singapore fell to the Japanese, in early 1942, thousands of servicemen and civilians were taken prisoner and many found themselves working as slave labour on various projects, including the infamous Burma Railway. One such prisoner was Bombardier Stanley Warren from Nottingham. He suffered from chronic dysentery and arrived at a building designated by the Japanese as the 'Dysentery Hospital'. After the war this building was given the number Block 151 and became part of RAF Changi. Prior to the war the barrack blocks, including 151, housed the gun crews of the famous heavy guns which pointed out to sea to the south, whereas the invasion came overland from the north. Some of the guns in fact could traverse 360 degrees, but they fired armour piercing shells which simply buried into the jungle floor causing little harm to the advancing Japanese.

Stanley arrived, very ill, at block 151, which although designated as the Dysentery Hospital in reality was simply a place for the men to die. In a rare moment of compassion the Japanese commander provided one room, on the ground floor, of block 151 for contemplation as a sort of chapel. Stanley was an artist and agreed to paint religious murals on the wall. He was very weak and only able to paint for ten minutes at a time before resting. Despite this, and the fact that they had to make their own paint from anything they could find, including billiard cue chalk (for blue), and brushes from human hair, Stanley completed five murals: The Nativity; the Crucifixion; the Resurrection and the Ascension. The fifth honoured Saint Luke, the patron of medicine. After about a year the Japanese took over the room and whitewashed over the murals. Stanley survived the war in various camps and came home to become an art teacher.

In the early 1960s I was posted to 48 Squadron RAF Changi, operating Handley Page Hastings aircraft; the Hastings had first flown in 1946, a couple of years before the Berlin airlift, and was already obsolescent. 48 Squadron was billeted in Block 151; the building had survived the war intact and my room was on the top floor directly above the Chapel. The Art Club had removed the whitewash to reveal the murals in poor condition. The one devoted to St Luke was badly damaged, but the others were complete but faded, bearing in mind the poor quality of the improvised paint.

After a search Stanley was located in the UK and eventually persuaded to return to Changi. He arrived whilst I was there, and I was able to meet him and the Art Club team, who together restored the murals to the excellent state they are in today.

Singapore later gained independence and the RAF vacated the island.

In 2013 Jane and I were routing through Singapore to Australia and New Zealand. She had contacted the Singapore military and obtained permission for us to visit Block 151, which is the only RAF building remaining. The military provided a mini bus, two hostesses and a guide in the chapel. We were treated like royalty and taken around the camp, which had changed out of recognition. It was a fantastic experience for me, harking back over 50 years.

The murals had been beautifully drawn by the very sick Stanley and are now fully restored. They now form part of Singapore's War Heritage and as they can only be visited with difficulty they have been reproduced at the Changi Museum on the site of the infamous Changi Gaol. One of the hostesses asked if I could hear voices as the cleaners claim that they hear men's voices. Bear in mind hundreds of men died at Changi. I told them, if I concentrated, I could hear my pals playing Glen Miller and Benny Goodman records.

If anybody is interested to learn more the whole story is on the Internet just type in Changi Murals.

(When 1325 (Dakota) Flight was disbanded in May 1960 my request to remain at Changi was accepted and I was posted to ASF; I had an outside bunk on the first floor of Block 151 and for a short period between May and Oct that year, when Beth and I were married and moved into a bungalow in Siglap, I was made Cpl i/c the unoccupied room downstairs that contained the murals; I can't remember how long that short period was or how long the room was unoccupied, but I'll always remember the strange feeling I got whenever I walked into it. Brian.)