Dr. Hubert James Lawson (Choa Chu Kang Columbarium)

This niche caught my eye;

Dr. Hubert James Lawson, MB BCH 

Malayan Medical Service 

Died in Sime Road 

Civilian Internment Camp Singapore

2nd December 1944 

Age 46

In Loving Memory 

From what little i can gather about Dr. Hubert James Lawson or Dr. H.J. Lawson (reported on December 1927) was his appointment by the Secretary of State for the Colonies for the Federated Malay States (F.M.S.) as a Medical Officer. In 1930, i see this article: At the European Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, on 4 April 1930, to Majorie, wife of Dr. H.J. Lawson, of Klang a son. In the 1930's i see various article of Dr. H.J Lawson, Medical Officer being transferred to various States in Malaya. In 1940, Dr. H.J. Lawson, Malaya Medical Service has been appointed to officiate as Medical Officer, Lower Perak. That was the only information i could find about him. 

The online resource of the Changi and Sime Road civilian internment camps: nominal rolls of internees (RCMS 103/12/22) by the University of Cambridge Digital Library, turned out to be useful and gave me some insight on the Sime Internment Camp. The digitised file is titled: Miscellaneous nominal rolls and plan of Sime Road Internment Camp and the file contains incomplete loose sheets bearing the names of internees and a plan of the Sime Road Camp, dated June 1945, accompanied by a key identifying locations (25 sheets).

From one of this pages, i found the record of Lawson, H.J., Medical Officer, Changi. This is likely Dr. Hubert James Lawson which states that he was a Prisoner of War initially at Changi before ending up in the Sime Road Internment Camp were he eventually passed away on 2 December 1946.  In the second screenshot, i can see that he was a UK Citizen, age 45 - M.O. M.M.S. Perak (which i believe is short for Medical Officer, Malayan Medical Service Perak. This confirms that this entry is him. 

Lawson, H.J. Medical Officer (page 398)

Entry with Lawson, Hubert, J. Dr. striked off (page 559)

Sime Road Internment Camp

The digitised record provided me insight that the camp and the Prisoners of War which included nationalities from many other countries, men, women and children. After the fall of Singapore, Sime Road Camp was used as an internment camp for prisoners-of-war (POWs). From December 1943 to May 1944, 1,800 survivors of the construction of the Burma Railway were housed here. However there was a change later in 1944, when the order came that the military POWs at Sime Road Camp be moved to Changi Prison, and the civilians at Changi be moved to Sime Road.

Sime Road Internment Camp (page 344)

It was reported that many prisoners died in the camp, one of those i found out from NLB's Infopedia article was the editor and managing director of the Malay Mail, J. H. M. Robson. 

From NewspaperSG, i also gathered other names;

Miss Catherine Ethel Jackson - died 14 November 1944 in Sime Road Camp (Miss Catherine E. Jackson was a well known missionary attached to the Methodist Mission)

[research on-going] 

Location of niche

Block A 1 - Row 2 or 3 (not sure), niche number 079