Mateen Ahmed ANSARI [1915-1943]

Submitted by Admin on Sat, 03/23/2013 - 19:38
Names
Given
Mateen Ahmed
Family
Ansari
Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
Birthplace (country)
India
Died
Date
Cause of death
Executed by the Japanese

Photos that show this Person

Comments

(WO343/196/22)

A/CAPTAIN MARTIN AHMED ANSARI, 5th Battalion 7th Rajput REGIMENT

“For conspicuous and sustained courage and outstanding devotion to duty whilst a Prisoner of War under conditions of extreme duress.”

From the time of the capitulation of HONGKONG this Officer was kept in the I.O.Rs. Camp and, at the inception of the India Independence League’s propaganda in April 1942, he was offered every inducement to join it, but he remained quite unaffected, and quietly and resolutely applied all his influence in steadying the I.O.Rs., and countering the propaganda.

He was warned by the Japanese Camp Authorities against such activities, and was on more than one occasion severely beaten by them. He remained undaunted and continued to try and hold the I.O.Rs together until he was taken out of the Camp and placed in Stanley Jail in May, 1942 without any charge being laid against him. He remained in Jail until September, 1942, when owing to the severe treatment he received he became so ill that the Japanese Authorities released him and sent him back to the Indian Camp Hospital.

As soon as he had recovered and was back again in the I.O.Rs Camp he not only continued to exert his influence, but with the aid of outside contacts he began to organize a system for aiding I.O.Rs to escape. He was unfortunately betrayed and arrested by the Japanese Authorities in May 1943. He was kept in Jail under the harshest conditions till October 1943, when he was tried by a Military Tribunal and sentenced to death. He was executed in Stanley Jail.

Throughout his period in Stanley Jail his courage and behavior were of the highest possible order, and British officers including the late Colonel Newnham and Major Boxer, who were in prison at the same time have testified that he set the finest possible example to his brother prisoners throughout.

In the circumstances which this gallant officer was placed, a starvation diet, an atmosphere of defeat and under the duress of a rabid propaganda, I cannot speak too highly of the deliberate and coldblooded courage and the indomitable spirit maintained by him over so prolonged a period which, though it might be equaled could hardly be excelled. The splendid example set by him was undoubtedly one of the main factors in keeping the majority of the I.O.Rs from forsaking their loyalty in such difficult circumstances.

Sd/- R.E. RAWLINSON
Lt. Colonel
5/7th Rajputs
Senior Officer Indian Troops

Argyle Street Camp.
Kowloon,
Hongkong
5th Sept. 1945.
 

The Commanding Officer of the 5/7 Rajputs is slightly mistaken when he states that Ansari “was executed in Stanley Jail.” He was, in fact, held in the prison before being beheaded on St. Stephen’s Beach, a few metres from the jetty which is still there.

There were a total of 33 executions on that day in October 1943 - 32 men and 1 woman. A very moving account of Ansari’s execution, as well as that of many of the others, can  be found in George Wright-Nooths’s 1994 book “Prisoner of the Turnip Heads.”