A close friend of historian Lynette Silver, said he travelled to Sabah with her when the POW Memorial Park was officially opened at Sandakan in March 1999. Twenty years later, the pair co-authored ‘Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW’, when Billy decided it was time he told the truth about his early tearaway years, which saw him sent to a boys’ home for teenage delinquents – a fact he had kept hidden all his life.
‘On his release, Big Bill saw the error of his ways and became a reformed character. He had a great sense of social justice and, in 1934, joined the Communist Party. He embraced the ideals of communism with enthusiasm, volunteering to join the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He was killed in 1938, but Billy was never given any details, other than he was dead.
‘With his father’s family in far away Hobart, Billy figured that, if nothing else, he would receive three meals a day, as well as good pay, if he were ‘lucky enough’ to go overseas.’ ‘In February 1943, Billy and a mate decided to try to escape. Naïve when it came to geography, and with no idea of the actual distance involved, they had seen a map of S E Asia that showed that Australia was only about 6 inches from Borneo. The pair figured they could steal a boat and island-hop home.’
The break up was amicable, however. Leaving his family behind, Billy bought a caravan and set off on a journey round Australia, stopping wherever he liked and working at odd jobs. In spare moments, over the following years, he began to jot down some of his wartime experiences. He also discovered that writing poetry helped him overcome the deep-seated grief at losing his mates.
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