From Shanghai to the Burma Railway

Born in 1911, Richard Laird was educated at Harrow and Cambridge. In 1937 he was sent by the Sun Insurance Company to Shanghai. Two years later he moved to Singapore and was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps. His wartime experiences in Singapore and on the Burma Railway are described in this memoir.

Reunited with his fiancée Bobbie Coupar Patrick in Ceylon in 1945, the couple married in London in 1946 before returning to Singapore. Later they lived in the Thames Valley for many years. Richard died in 2008.

**Editor Details: ** Richard and Bobbie's son, Rory Laird is a former Fleet Air Arm officer with a deep interest in family history. He lives in Scotland with his wife Shelagh, where he pursues his other interests in hill-walking (he has completed all the Scottish Munroes) and, on a not very business-like basis, landscape gardening and antique furniture restoration.