Ben Wheeler

Who is Ben Wheeler?

Ben Wheeler was a Canadian doctor in the British Army stationed in Singapore in 1942 when British forces unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese. He had a central role in keeping up the spirits and the health of British and Commonwealth soldiers subjected to harsh treatment while prisoners of the Japanese, and was directly responsible for saving hundreds of lives. He was imprisoned by the Japanese in Singapore and later moved to Taiwan with other British POWs.

The POW's were used by the Japanese as forced labour in copper mines and were subjected to the most inhuman treatment imaginable. Conditions in the mine and the camp were as bad, if not worse in many cases, than those experienced by POWs under Japanese control on the now-famous Railway of Death in Burma and Thailand.

A movie, A War Story, was made about his experiences as a prisoner of war. His daughter, Anne Wheeler was the director of this feature length docudrama. The film was released in 1981.