Eric Lomax

Eric Sutherland Lomax (30 May 1919 – 8 October 2012) He left the Royal High School, Edinburgh, aged 16, after entering a civil service competition and obtaining employment at the Post Office. On 8 April 1936, he became a sorting clerk and telegraphist in Edinburgh. On 10 March 1937, he was promoted to the clerical class.

Military service In 1939, aged 20, Lomax joined the Royal Corps of Signals before World War II broke out. Following time in the 152nd Officer Cadet Training Unit, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 28 December 1940. He was given the service number 165340. He was a Royal Signals officer attached to the 5th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery.

As a lieutenant, he was captured by the Japanese following the surrender of Singapore in February 1942. He was awarded the Efficiency Medal (Militia) in 1949 and was granted the honorary rank of captain. He retired from the Army in 1949. The meeting between the two men was filmed as a documentary Enemy, My Friend? (1995), directed by Mike Finlason. The film received several awards.

Lomax's death, at the age of 93, was announced by the BBC on 8 October 2012. He died in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.

Personal life A keen railway enthusiast and transport photographer, Lomax joined the Stephenson Locomotive Society in 1937, and his enthusiasm for railways stayed with him to his death.

He married his first wife Agnes Scott Dickson ("Nan") on 20 November 1945, just three weeks after being liberated. They had three children, Linda May (14 December 1946 – 13 December 1993), Eric (18 June 1948) and Charmaine Carole (born 17 June 1957).

In 1980, Lomax met British-born Canadian nurse Patricia "Patti" Wallace who was 17 years his junior. She moved from Canada to the United Kingdom in 1982. Lomax left Nan several months later and married Patti in 1983.

A film adaptation was released in 2013. Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, the film stars Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvine as the older and younger Eric Lomax respectively, and Nicole Kidman as Patti, the woman who befriended and later married Lomax. The film moves between Lomax's time as a FEPOW on the Burma Railway and his later life around the time of his reconciliation with his captor.

Other He was a council member of The Freedom Association.

Works The Railway Man