James Alfred Richardson was born in London in May 14, 1914.
He became a geologist, joining the British government and journeying out to Malaya in 1936 on the SS Carthage. He was a field Geologist in Malaya 1937-41, which included mapping parts of North-West Pahang, Malaysia’s third-biggest State, until 1941 when he joined the war.
He wrote an extensive diary, which he donated to the Imperial War Museum in 1985, of his time in Malaya pre-war, his involvement in the Malaya Campaign, as part of the No.1 Independent Infantry Company, and then as a POW of the Japanese.
Many of the post entries on this website, particularly from 21st December 1941, are taken from this diary.
The link takes you to an article about James Richardson, written for the Geologists’ Association in 2015. james_richardson-pga-april_2015