#7595, Peter Charles Victor COBBOLD

When Japan entered the Second World War with its spectacular assault on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941, the imperial interests of Britain and its allies in South East Asia became sitting ducks.  Within a week the Japanese Imperial Army had landed at Miri on the coast of Sarawak.  The population, predominantly British faced a stark choice: to surrender or to flee.  At Sibu, Peter Cobbold was among twenty-six westerners who decided to take the latter course.

Peter had left England for Borneo aboard the MV Glenapp in 1919 when he was just twenty-two and arrived at Kuching in Sarawak on 2nd June.  His mother died when he was just six.  He served with the RAF in the Great War with the rank of aircraftman first class having joined up in December 1916.  At the Borneo Company's headquarters in Kuching it seems he was being groomed for senior management, learning the business from the bottom up.  He was seconded to the Company's Singapore branch for fifteen months; made visits to other Company locations and returned to England on leave in 1924 and again in 1937.

Peter never married but it would have been perfectly normal for him as a bachelor in Sarawak, to have a local girlfriend to live with him though no evidence exists to support this.  His progress up the career ladder was steady rather than spectacular.  During the 1930s he was appointed manager of the Sibu branch which was an important position affording a comfortable lifestyle and a large house.  Colonial society offered refinement, camaraderie and a lot of fun.  This enviable way of life came to an abrupt end in December 1941.

When news reached Sibu of the Japanese landings at Miri, Peter and the other westerners had to decide whether to remain in post or try to escape.  Stories of Japanese atrocities in China and elsewhere convinced the majority that fleeing into the jungle was the best of their unenviable options.  Led by the senior resident, Andrew MacPherson a party of about twenty-eight fled up river to the ferocious Pelagus Rapids where they disembarked to proceed on foot.  One boat which included their supply of benzine, food and Peter's personal possessions was lost but they carried on despite atrocious conditions, and twenty-eight days after leaving Sibu the beleaguered party reached Long Nawang, a Dutch military post just over the border from Sarawak.  They were in a sorry state but had the opportunity for modest recovery.  The most viable route for escape was a daunting trek across the mountains and through almost impenetrable jungle, a journey that would take at least a fortnight.  An advance party battled with near impossible conditions but made it to Jakarta where they sought to persuade the Dutch to send seaplanes to Nawang to mount a rescue.  Sadly, the fall of Java precluded any such mission.

Those at Long Nawang had no idea of the fortunes of the advanced party but harboured hopes that rescue plans were in hand.  Meantime it became clear that Japanese troops would soon hold the entire island and some including Peter made plans to return to Sibu to surrender.  Possibly because he was not well enough to undertake such a journey Peter decided not to leave the camp.  Their relatively comfortable way of life in this hill station punctuated by alternate emotions of hope and fear was to be shattered in a way that was brutal almost beyond imagination.  The party's hiding place was betrayed by a local tribesman.  A detachment of seventy-two Japanese Marines led by Captain Mora Shima set off for Long Nawang.  As the refugees had failed to surrender when the Japanese originally invaded Borneo, Mora's orders were to treat them as enemy fugatives and this probably explains their treatment.  The women and children were removed across the river.  The men were led to a hill behind the barracks where mass graves had been prepared.  There, they were shot, bayoneted and thrown into graves.  Peter was among the victims.  The six women and four children who for the time being had been spared were to face an even worse fate.  For a month they were repeatedly molested by Japanese soldiers until eventually they were mutilated and murdered by bayonet.

Not a single refugee survived.  A report prepared in 1945 cited Mora and others as perpetrators but despite the assertion that 'no effort should be spared' to trace them, none faced trial.  After the war crosses were placed on the graves and a priest consecrated the ground.