Quote Originally Posted by Larry124 View Post
Wasn’t Barrow in a Japanese run POW camp?
Either way, for Sinclair to make light of an experience like that was shameful to me.
Maybe incredible also – could an officer of his rank have really been unaware of POW experiences?
Were officers who had become POW’s held to be somehow at fault for their misfortune?
Yes, Barrow was "out east somewhere".

Sinclair was referring to POWS in the European Theatre, who were treated better than their counterparts in the East, although it was still pretty bad.

Jock's problem with Barrow wasn't so much that he was a POW, but because he was not loyal to the battalion. He joined the battalion as a subaltern, and then left to serve with SOE if I remember correctly -- officers who left their regiments to serve in the Commandos, SOE, etc. were frequently ostracised by fellow officers. Barrow's "sin" was double in the fact that he had a family connection with the battalion. Loyalty to the regiment was first and foremost.

Barrow also came into the regiment with a "university degree", while Jock came in "band-boy, boot-boy and Barlinnie Goal" -- a ranker who was promoted, a rarity in the pre-war British Army.

While the movie only hints at Jock's service as a piper, the book goes into much greater detail -- "in talking to the corporal, it's the pipe major I should have been". Jock even played pibrochs on the wireless.

Regards,

Todd