THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS
Stewart Mitchell remembers the POWs of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, a battalion that suffered more at the hands of their victors as captives than as adversaries
The 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, was an extremely close-knit group of men. The unit included 29 sets of brothers, its personnel came from small towns and villages across northeast Scotland, and the men often knew each other’s wider families.
As a regular army battalion, it left Britain in October 1934 and after two years in Gibraltar arrived in Singapore in April 1937. Accompanied by their families in the adjacent married quarters, the Highlanders took up residence in the brand new Selarang Barracks. Singapore was a strategically vital base, protecting
important routes to Australia, New Zealand and the wider Pacific. The Gordons were garrison troops, protecting the heavy coastal guns thought to make Fortress Singapore impregnable. Before hostilities began, they took part in many civic functions and parades and were a huge draw for the crowds – akilted highland battalion, led by their pipe band, was alien to the local population of Malays, Chinese, Tamils and even some Europeans.
The infamous Japanese attack on Pear…
