Ignite Lab

A great and inspiring example of how the prisoners from the Death Railway used innovation to make their lives a little more bearable during World War II…

“Because the prisoners of war received very little or nothing in the way of replacement clothing during their three and a half years of captivity, they had to resort to all kinds of ways to repair or reuse what they did have.

When Lieutenant O. J. Blau arrived in Kanchanaburi after working on the Burma end of the railway with the Australians of ‘A’ Force he was fortunate to be with a fellow officer, Lieutenant A. E. Staples, who knew how to knit.  The pair unravelled old socks and other woollen garments to collect enough yarn, then Lt. Staples knitted a pair of new socks on needles made from bamboo.

In June 2008 Os Blau, then aged 95, donated this one sock of the pair to the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre.”

I have spent the last few days touring London with a friend from New York City. We covered the Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Camden Market, Covent Garden and all of the other typical places you would visit. 

My friend was amazed by scale of all of the Museums and Galleries with their endless collections highlighting numerous historical events from around the world. I couldn’t help but draw a comparison to my visit to the Pacific island of Vanuatu earlier this year, and its number one ‘landmark’ that every tourist was encouraged to visit, their World War II Museum. 

The largest collection of WWII coke bottles in the entire Pacific

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