GEORGE ALBERT COBBOLD (1916-1943) and The Bridge on the River Kwai
David Lean’s epic 1957 war film staring William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins will be well known to at least our more senior readers. The bridge was a strategically important point on the Burma Railway which became known as the Death Railway. 415 km in length it ran between Ban Pong in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma (now Myanmar) being built between 1942 and 1943 by South East Asian civilians forced to work by the Japanese and a smaller group of Allied Prisoners of War.
George Albert Cobbold was one of them.
The son of Herbert A Cobbold and Sarah L Cobbold of Southgate, Middlesex, and a Private in the 5th Battalion the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, George was one of 30 thousand British, Indian and crown colony prisoners who represented about half the Allied soldiers enslaved. Following their invasion of Burma early in 1942 the Japanese decided to build the railway as a safer supply route than the long sea voyage around the Malay Peninsula. Building commenced in June that year. The 3,200 km sea route was vulnerable to Allied submarine attack.
All but 50 km of the rail route was across rugged terrain covered in dense malarial jungle. Instead of starting at both ends the Japanese set up over 100 camps along the route so that sections could be built simultaneously. Conditions in the camps were horrendous particularly at the more remote sites where resupply of food, equipment and medical supplies was difficult. The work itself was gruelling and dangerous. Apart from building a huge number of bridges it included clearing jungle and constructing embankments and cuttings.
George died of dysentery on 16th July 1943 at the Songkurai no.2 camp and was laid to rest in Cemetery no.2, Block B, Row 1, Grave 5. Hitherto we have been unable to connect George’s parents to the web family tree. If anyone can help, we will be delighted.
Anthony Cobbold
