James Harry Dickinson, 2/10th Field Regiment

Brothers Harry and Stan Dickinson both saw service during the Second World War, although their journeys were vastly different

Their collection contains not only the letters, medals and memorabilia associated with two young men who went to war, but also their hopes, dreams and aspirations, along with their families words of love and concern as they waited to learn their fate.

In the same month as his brother Stan, Harry Dickinson enlisted in the Australian Army, and was attached to the 2/10th Field Regiment [artillery] which trained at Redbank, Caloundra and Grovely before departing for Singapore in August 1941 aboard HMT JJ (Sibajak). While Stan was in England and the Middle East with the RAAF, Harry trained in Malaya with his regiment for a fight they never really thought would happen. Late in 1941 the Imperial Japanese Army made it's way down the Malay Peninsula, trapping allied troops in Singapore, where they surrendered in February 1942.

First interned at Changi Prison Camp, in May 1942, Harry was detached to 'A Force', the first work party to be sent out from Singapore, travelling to Victoria Point, southern Burma, where they were put to work constructing airfields. Soon after they were sent to Thanbyuzayat to begin work on the Burmese end of the Burma-Thailand Railway. After the completion of the railway Harry was moved to a camp in Thailand, from where he was recovered in 1945.

All the while Harry was away his family continued to write to him in the hope that he may be alive. In 1943 they were informed that he was indeed alive and a prisoner in Thailand, and they exchanged brief cards and letters up until his repatriation to Australia. On his return he married his fiancée Alison 'Joyce' Ozanne in November 1946.

Harry's collection of letters, telegrams and memorabilia, has been housed together with his brother Stan's and can be viewed at the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

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34140 James and William Dickinson collection
 - Collection guide

Service Record: James Harry Dickinson

• National Archives of Australia, Series B883, Item ID 4498807

POW Card: James Harry Dickinson

• National Archives of Australia, Series A14171, Item ID 31829972

Mates and memories : recollections of the 2/10th Field Regiment R.A.A. by Robert Goodwin, 1995

Watch ... 

The 1943 Burma railroad, 2020. Pritzker Military Museum & Library [youtube]