Drysdale, John (1897 - 1979)

Private, Royal Flying Corps

Buried at

Commemorated at

John Drysdale, born in Glasgow on 15th October 1897, was the third of five boys in the family of Duncan Stewart Drysdale, a commercial traveller, and Mary McLellan Jackson. Between 1917 and 1918 John served in the Royal Flying Corps. After the war he attended the University of Glasgow and studied for a degree in Mechanical Engineering. At that time he was resident at 17 Darnley Avenue, Scotstoun. Some of his classes were taken at the Royal Technical College. He struggled to pass his Engineering 1V, but he did and graduated BSc in 1925. The following year, on 15th April 1926, he married Janet Morgan Wilton. He went on to enjoy a very successful professional and private life.

By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, John Drysdale was a company director with J A Russell & Co in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. He was in overall charge of the Coal Mines and Plywood Factory at Batu Arang and built the Wood Distillation plant there. After ensuring that his family was evacuated to safety, John Drysdale took an active part in the 'scorched earth policy', making it as difficult as possible for the advancing Japanese Army. He was captured, however, and spent the years from 1942 to 1945 as a prisoner in five different Japanese internment camps.

Despite horrendous conditions and threats of death, he not only survived, but prevailed. He succeeded in winning rest breaks for his fellow prisoners and even utilised his powers of inventiveness to manufacture toothpaste, surgical knives and wristwatch bands from meagre raw materials. These last items he even sold to the Japanese guards. His remarkable exploits are told in a book by an American journalist William H McDougall, whom he had met in Palembang jail. It is entitled 'By Eastern Windows: the story of a battle of souls and minds in the prison camps of Sumatra'.

At the war's end he returned to Malaya and became chairman of J A Russell & Co. He was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was appointed to the Malayan Legislative Council and was also a Justic of the Peace (JP). In 1962, John Drysdale retired to Scotland and died in Auchterarder on 17th July 1979. He served his country well in two world wars, once as an airman and once as a civilian.

Reproduced with permission from the University of Glasgow Roll of Honour: http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/ww1-intro/