PLEASE READ
Re: Captain Godolphin RASC

Lesley Nicholls on nicholls@ucalgary.ca wrote:

I recently undertook the task of clearing out my mother's flat as she was entering a seniors residence. In one box of I found an very well worn tankard that obviously at one time had been silver-plated. When I asked her about it, she told me a moving story.

Her brother James Cook (Lt. Col retired) had served in the RASC in Burma at the end of the war and he was involved in the liberation of POW camps and in the transportation of POW's. On one occasion he was driving through the jungle when two nearly naked men staggered out into the road in front of them. They had been prisoners for some years and when the Japanese guards left the camp, they decided to try and get help rather than waiting for liberation. They had been in the jungle for some time and were literally skin and bone and barely able to stand. My uncle picked them up, provided them with food and water and transported them to the nearest post.

Some days later he went to see how they were getting on and one of the man presented my uncle with a metal tankard. He said it had been with him throughout the war and his time in POW camp. It had been used as a food bowl, drinking mug, shaving mug, washing bowl - just about every task for which a solid container was required. The silver plate had been worn off the mug and in the inside was black with residue from its many uses. But the mug retains its engraving.

It reads - Ipoh Club Runner-up Award Snooker championship 1932 and It was awarded to Capt. Goldolphin RASC.

I remember the mug sitting on my uncle's desk - he used it to hold pens and pencils. After he died my mother packed it away and it wasn't until I discovered it that I found out the story behind it.

The mug is now with me in Canada and I am now trying to figure out what to do with it. Is there was some way of finding out if it was Capt Goldolphin (though probably he had been promoted since being awarded the mug) that my uncle picked up? Does anyone remember someone called Goldolphin who was a POW in Burma? Are there lists of POW's on the web that could help me trace this person. This is the first attempt I am making to track down anything more - I hate the thought of the mug being casually thrown away - there is too much history attached to it. I have approached the Imperial War Museum who have given me some suggestions and are willing to consider accepting it but is there some more appropriate place?

Suggestions etc. would be very much appreciated.