20 years have gone by since Geoff Lee passed away but Christine Bridges, formerly of Calverton, has kept her word to her father – to share his unique story.
In the heyday of Nottingham’s Lidos John Geoffrey Lee (always known as Geoff) and his wife owned Calverton Lido from the 1960s through to the 1990s.
The Lido was opened in 1937 and finally closed in 2000 and had a diving board, pavilions, bungalows, toilets, a pump room, a social club, a restaurant and a paddling pool. Allegedly one of the attractions was reported to be two apes kept in a cage.
Very few people knew when visiting Calverton Lido of the amazing life history of owner, Geoff Lee and the combination of events that led to his story finally being told in print.
Geoff’s daughter Christine Bridges has now brought Geoff’s story to life some 20 years after he passed away.
Christine shared that Geoff had lived all of his life in Nottingham including quite a few years in Arnold. Christine herself lived in Calverton from 2007 until 2017 and her mum lived there from 1982 until 2016.
This is Geoff’s story …
Christine’s parents let out the restaurant part of Calverton Lido to Eddie and June Bridges in 1970. Christine went on to marry the Bridges’ son, who was a Grenadier Guard.
Because of Eddie’s connection to the services Christine’s dad, Geoff started to talk to him about his time as a Far East Prisoner Of War. He had never spoken about it before as he said no one believed he’d been a slave of the Japanese on the Sumatra Railway.
Geoff’s story is an amazing one of hope and survival and determination to expose the truth, and had Christine not met her husband at Calverton, Lido Geoff’s story may never have been told.
Eddie Bridges, Geoff’s son-in-law had started to talk to Geoff about his experiences in the Far East in the 1970s, and he was paramount in helping him to research and contact Far East Prisoners of War in Sumatra.
Geoff then proceeded to write his remarkable book in the 1990s but couldn’t get it published before he died in 2002.
Christine Bridges promised her dad before he passed away that she would get his book published and she carried out her promise by having the book published by Pen and Sword in June last year (22).
Geoff’s book ‘POW on the Sumatra Railway’ gives detailed information about his time and experiences as a Far East Prisoner of War and the horrific treatment he received in the hell ships and prison camps.
He tells how he was treated with disbelief when he returned from the Far East. Actual letters from the 1970s received from the CWGC (Common Wealth Graves Commission), MOD (Ministry of Defence) and IWM (Imperial War Museum) showed them having no knowledge of the Sumatra Railway however in the 1980s the CWGC, MOD and the IWM acknowledged Geoff’s proof after his journey to Sumatra in 1980.
John Geoffrey Lee (always known as Geoff) joined the RAF on his 20th birthday in June 1941. He left Liverpool on a troop ship in December 1941, with no idea where he was going.
He eventually arrived in Java, where he was captured by the Japanese, along with many others. During his time in captivity, he survived several camps in Java, Ambon and Singapore and three hell ship journeys. After being washed ashore in Sumatra, (as a ferry he was being transported on blew up), he was then recaptured and suffered sheer hell as a slave on the Sumatra Railway.
Enduring bouts of malaria, beri beri, tropical ulcers and a starvation diet was bad enough, but this was exacerbated by the searing heat and extreme cruelty meted out to the prisoners by the Japanese and Korean guards.
Geoff miraculously survived, weighing just 6 stone when he arrived back in Liverpool four years later in December 1945.
After his release he found he had difficulty in convincing people where he had been as no one had heard of the “Sumatra Railway”, they had only heard of the other one, thousands of miles away in Burma. Letters to newspapers were returned as ‘Just another Burma Railway story’.
The Ministry of Defence, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and The Imperial War Museum had no records of POW’s building a railway in Sumatra.
So began Geoff’s journey, his aim… to prove to the establishment what he already knew to be true.
The new book shares Geoff’s story of his captivity, release, and subsequent efforts in achieving his aim.
Christine will be giving a free talk and presentation at Calverton Library on May 15 at 2.00pm.
The book can be purchased on the Pen and Sword Publishers website here.
Happy days at Calverton lido lots of good days