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Tom Boardman’s Ukulele
Thomas Boardman volunteered for army services in October 1939 and departed from Liverpool on an eight week journey to Singapore. In 1942 he was captured by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore and was marched to Changi Prisoner of War Camp.
Until the end of the war he spent his time in captivity. The conditions were primitive and desperate, with punishing work and meager food and water rations. Many prisoners died of diseases that they picked up in the jungle, and many were simply worked to death by their Japanese captors.
Thomas Boardman, however, kept his spirits up by cobbling together something to provide himself with a task and to give his fellow prisoners some respite from the appalling situation they found themselves in. It took him nearly two months to piece his Ukulele together by gathering scraps for materials, hammering nails with rocks. Taking the lack of materials into account Boardman did a wonderful job. The Ukulele even has the same strings today as those he fixed onto it over 60 years ago.
Presenter Jonathan Foyle says: "Tom was in essence making the Ukulele to give his fellow soldiers belief and hope."
Where can it be found? Imperial War Museum North, Manchester.
Thomas Boardman said: "I’m not glad I went through it but I think it was an experience in life; in how to get along and pull together."
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