
Registered with the UK Charities Commissioners - No:1066682		Back to TOP OF SITE

Our Aims

The ‘Kwai Railway Memorial - Three Pagodas Group’ has three aims:

To raise money to buy books, paintings and displays which depict Prisoner of War life
To send these objects to the Railway Memorial and Museum at ‘Hell Fire Pass’ in Thailand
To promote an interest in the Memorial and Museum in both Britain and Thailand

‘Hell Fire Pass’ is located in Thailand’s jungle province of Kanchanaburi, and is approximately 200km north-east of the capital, Bankok.

The cholera area at Tarso Camp
Drawing by Ronald Searle

'Would it be possible to have Hellfire Pass preserved as an historic site, dedicated to the memory of all our fellow PoWs and civilian slaves, of whom so much had been demanded in the construction of the Thai-Burma Railway?'

J G (Tom) Morris - 1983
'The Instigator of the Memorial'

The Memorial project is intended to honour not only the Allied Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees from India, Burma Malaya and other countries who died during the construction of the railway, but also all who suffered as a consequence of the hardships endured during the railway's construction.

'Working on the Railway Cutting at Night, July 1943
Working on the Railway Cutting at Night
July 1943 by Murray Griffin
AWM. art 25081

The Thai-Burma Railway

The Memorial was dedicated on 26 April 1987. The ceremony was attended by many former prisoners of war and other VIPs. The main address was delivered by Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, the former commander of the wartime Hintok Camp

'Weary' Dunlop was a hero to those who came into his care while they were slaving on the railway. He passed away in July 1993 and, in accordance with his wishes, his ashes were interred in Hellfire Pass at the ANZAC Day Dawn Service on 25 April 1994. During the Service his sons unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion.

In memory of
Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop
AC CMG OBE KStJ MS FRCS FRACS DSc
1907 - 1993
Patron of the Association and Surgeon of the Jungle
whose ashes were scattered in this area
on 25th April 1994

From 1942 to 1945 Weary Dunlop and his medical colleagues, in the Armed Services of Great Britian, Australia, Netherlands, India and the United States of America gave devoted service to thousands of sick and dying prisoners-of-war and Asian labourers who were forced to constriuct and maintain the Burma-Thailand Railway.

The doctors provided leadership, helped alleviate pain and suffering, and above all gave reason to live when all real hope seemed lost.

"When you go home, tell them of us and say,
We gave our tomorrow, for your today"

3pagodas@iname.com

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