Immortal diamond

Reference Number: PP/491
Level of Description: Item
Title: Immortal diamond
Creator(s) & Administrative History: Durnford, John: Author
The author: Publisher
Date: 1975
ISBN: 7223 0750-0
Extent: Pages: 62
Description: A book of poety signed by the author. Stanley John Harper Durnford was born in Edinburgh in 1920 and educated at Sherborne School, Dorset and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. When war broke out in 1939, he joined the Royal Artillery and was posted to Malaya. Captured, he was a POW at Khanburi camp where he was forced to work on the River Kwai 'Death' railway. However, he contined to write poetry at night. Liberated in September 1945, he returned to his parents' home in Bath and later married three times having three children. He struggled to deal with his wartime experiences but published books of memoirs and continued to write poety. He retired to Bath where he died on 11th August 1995. The poem 'In hospital, 1946' in the volume was written while he was a patient at St. Martin's Hospital.
Subject: Poetry
Prisoners of War
Second World War (1939-1945)