Harry Silman

Harry Silman (1910–2005) served with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers during World War Two, attaining the rank of Captain. He was en route to Africa in 1942 when his division was diverted to Singapore to help defend the island. The boat arrived just ten days before the surrender, and he spent the rest of the war as a POW, tending to ill and dying men. Despite punishing conditions, he managed to keep a diary of uncommon detail. His postwar years in England were spent in general practice as a beloved physician in Leeds.