28012 W/C George Frederick ALEXANDER O.B.E. - P.o.W. in Far East

[wwrsimon]

Hello everyone

I came across this officer in a newspaper article in the Shields Evening News of October 5th 1946:

Tynemouth RAF Officer Awarded OBE

Tynemouth born Group Captain George Frederick Alexander, now of Lewes, Sussex, who was punished by the Japs for refusing to order prisoners of war to assist the enemy, has been awarded the O.B.E.

The official citation says, “His bearing during captivity was most impressive and his strength of character made him a very successful camp commander. On one occasion he spent 128 days in cells because he would not order officers to work on aeroplanes or give the Japanese a list of the trades of prisoners under his command.”
Group Captain Alexander, who is 41 years of age, was granted a short-service commission in the general duties branch in 1929, and was later granted a permanent RAF commission. In May 1938, he was posted for torpedo duties to Seletar, in the Far East, and was reported missing in February, 1943. It was later established that he was a prisoner and he worked for a considerable time as a senior British officer and camp commander.

I wondered if anyone could provide any details of his unit when he became a prisoner? Or had come across him mentioned in his time pre-war?

His P.o.W. card on Fold3.com records that became a prisoner on '17 3 8' which I'm presuming is either March 8th 1942 in the Showa calendar, so just after the fall of Singapore, or is it maybe August 3rd 1942, bearing in mind he was reported as a P.o.W. in February 1943...?

He was a Wing Commander at the time of his capture.

Regards

Simon

[Resmoroh]

Simon,
I have him on the Expt G-sheet as:-
ALEXANDER, George Frederick , G F, 1942-03-08, Wg Cdr, RAF, 28012, JA.
POW 8 Mar 43. Don’t know which camp in Java. POW#28012.
HTH
Peter Davies

[wwrsimon]

Peter

Thanks for the info. I think 28012 is his Service Number, and his P.o.W. number is 7787?

Regards

Simon