Fred Murdock held as POW by the Japanese

DROGHEDA MAN TAKEN PRISONER ON THE FALL OF SINGAPORE AND HELD CAPTIVE FOR THREE YEARS

THE death of Mr. Frederick Murdock, member of a well known Drogheda family, which was reported in our last issue, caused much regret among those who knew him in the old days when he was a prominent member of the Laytown and Bettystown Golf Club.

The late Mr. Murdock spent a part of his life in Malaya, and was taken prisoner when the Japanese over-ran that nation in 1942.

He was imprisoned in Formosa, Japan and various P.O.W. camps, and we were privileged to read a diary in which, he related his experiences at the hands of the forces of Nippon.

This diary was kept on scraps of paper which he succeeded in concealing from his captors, and it was not until his release in 1945, when he was brought to Manila, that he was able to put it into manuscript form. This he did under the title “You Are Not Tourists “and he illustrated it himself.

THE death of Mr. Murdock brings to mind an anecdote which the writer heard him relate on his return to Drogheda after the war.

In one of the P.O.W. camps Mr. Murdock met a fellow prisoner who was the lucky possessor of a duck which daily supplemented his meagre ration of rice with a large and rather succulent egg.

Day after day the wise old bird performed her good deed, but Nemesis, in the shape of a Japanese sentry, arrived one day to confiscate the webfooted traitor that fraternised with her country’s enemies.

Her owner was distraught - how could he save his feathered friend from the firing squad ? Quickly he explained to the now astonished guard that the duck was no ordinary member of the Anatidae family, but a god and that he was a duck-worshipper.

Amazed, the sentry listened while the prisoner told him of the Sacred Cow of India, not forgetting to put his great-god duck in the same category. The sentry was impressed. After all, was not the frog sacred to his own people. With a muttered apology to the prisoner and a deep bow to the god duck, he turned on his heel, while the wily old bird, with a happy “quack, quack,” turned her mind to her daily humanitarian duty.

Things were not always so rosy or humorous as Mr. Murdock revealed in his diary. A graduate of Trinity College, the late Mr. Murdock had been attached for 12 ‘years to the British Public Works Department in Malaya, in the capacity of civil engineer. Following the Japanese declaration of war, he was incorporated into the army with the rank of captain, and he served with the British forces all through the campaign in Malaya. He was taken prisoner on the fall of Singapore.