TAIWAN’S FIRST EVER ROVER SCOUT TROOP – IN A POW CAMP!

Early In January this year we received an email from Cliff Phillips in the UK, the son of former Taiwan POW Arthur Phillips of the 1st Btn. Manchester Reg’t. who was held in Heito and Shirakawa camps.

     Cliff shared a most interesting story of how while as a POW at the Shirakawa Camp in the spring of 1945, his father had been made a member of the first ever Taiwan Rover Crew and sent us a copy of his father’s membership certificate (below)

I had heard of the establishment of this Rover Crew by Major Isaac Pedley from other POWs who had been members, but this was the first time that I had actually seen any articles that pertained to it.

As with much of the Taiwan POWs’ story, very little was known of this here in Taiwan and even in Scouting circles worldwide. Another man in the UK, Colin Walker, had done some research into the subject several years ago and has an excellent website telling the account of the Scout Troops that operated in the Japanese prison of war camps at Changi, Shirakawa Taiwan and on the Death Railway in Thailand. The story of the part these Scout groups played in the camps is remarkable. It can be found at: http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/bamboo.htm

When reading Colin’s account of the Shirakawa Camp Rovers, it read like a “who’s who” of POWs that I have come to know over the years – a number of them personally. It also shows that many of these men, who had been members of the Scout Movement in their youth, brought the leadership abilities they had learned with them to the army and it also helped in their experiences as POWs. As is often true of many great leaders in history, they had all been members of Scouting and lived by its principles.

This story is especially meaningful to me as I too have been involved in Scouting – for more than 30 years – in Canada and also here in Taiwan.

Cliff has kindly donated his father’s certificate to us for our POW museum collection, and so once again it is back in Taiwan for all to see, and to help us remember another part of the Taiwan POW story.