It took decades for Don Tweedie to share the horror of what he had endured as a prisoner of war in World War II.
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Now his son has published a book that shares Don’s memories of those atrocities, his life before and after the war.
“Don Tweedie Fighting Bandsman’s Last Stand” is Terry Tweedie’s tribute to his dad and other POWS along with the families, friends, mothers, wives and girlfriends who suffered with them.
It’s a story his father wanted to tell, but found it difficult to voice. The war left more than physical scars.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that Don Tweedie started to speak about his experiences as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, to tell of the beatings, starvation and disease, death and survival.
His family knew he had been a POW, but little of the detail. When Terry asked him to write a little about his experience, he was astounded to get a 130-page document.
“He wanted a copy for all our family members so they had an understanding of what war could do to a person,” Mr Tweedie said.
The book includes those memoirs, some of which were published in the Advocate in 2002, with more material that Mr Tweedie found after his father’s death.
Writing the book took Terry and brother Geoff to Thailand and Burma, to see where their father worked and was hospitalised during the war.
But the book is much more … it tells of Don’s childhood, and then of his life after the war: his marriage to Theo, their children, move to Forbes, love of test cricket, stud cattle and Forbes Town Band.
Many will remember Don Tweedie playing side drum with Forbes Town and District Band, he was a member from 1962 to 2007.
“Drumming was his release, something he enjoyed doing,” Mr Tweedie said. “He also loved teaching kids the drum.”
Terry is the second of Don and Theo’s five sons – Geoffrey, John, Richard and Graham.
He will launch the book at Forbes Rotary’s Australia Day breakfast, with soft and hard cover copies available in the afternoon. There is also an e-book on Amazon.