Jack Bridger Chalker
English artist
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(Suggest an Edit or Addition)According to Wikipedia, Jack Bridger Chalker , was a British artist and teacher best known for his work recording the lives of the prisoners of war building the Burma Railway during World War II. Biography Chalker was born in London, the son of a railway stationmaster who had been awarded the MBE for his work in World War I. After attending Alleyn's School in Dulwich and training in graphics and painting at Goldsmiths College, Chalker won a scholarship to the Painting School of the Royal College of Art in London. However, Chalker was conscripted into the British Army before he could take up his scholarship. While serving in Singapore as a bombardier with the Royal Field Artillery in February 1942, Chalker was captured by the invading Japanese forces during the fall of Singapore. Chalker was held as a prisoner of war, first in Changi prison then two labour camps before being sent to work on the Burma Railway. On a part of the line in Kanchanaburi, Chalker used stolen paper and other materials to record the torture, malnutrition and illnesses endured by the prisoners. Although he risked being badly beaten, or worse, for doing so he managed to produce, and keep hidden, over one hundred paintings and drawings during his captivity between 1942 and 1945. He met the Australian surgeon Colonel Edward Dunlop in 1944 and agreed, again at great personal risk, to make detailed records of the prisoner's medical conditions to help Dunlop in his work. When released in 1945, Chalker spent some time at the Australian Army HQ in Bangkok working as an official war artist. Chalker's works, together with those of fellow POW artists Philip Meninsky, Ashley George Old and Ronald Searle form a unique record of prisoners' suffering during the building of the railway and were used in evidence at the subsequent Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. Many of these paintings are now located at the Australian War Memorial and the Imperial War Museum. In 1995 an exhibition of the works of the four artists was held at the State Library of Victoria under the title 'The Major Arthur Moon Collection'.
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