Norman Sligo was a river boat captain in Malaya when the Japanese invasion began. He joined the Royal Naval Reserve and was then transferred to the Royal Australian Naval Reserve - presumably to give him official standing so he could take part in wartime operations.
Made a prisoner of war after the fall of Singapore, he found himself in a camp in Sandakan, on the northern coast of the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. A large group of prisoners was taken there to be used as forced labour on airfield construction. Prisoners were permitted to grow vegetables for food outside the wire and Sligo, with his command of local languages, was given the job of collecting intelligence from local people.
Norman Sligo was one of the many prisoners who died of dysentery.
Details of Norman Sligo's life were found in "Sandakan: A Conspiracy of Silence," by Lynette Ramsay Silver.
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