AN AUTHOR from Romsey has written a book about prisoners of war who were forced to work on the Burma Railway during the Second World War based on her family's own experiences. 

Kim Wheeler's book The Burma Railway and PTSD tells the story of a former POW’s mental health battle long after the guns fell silent in 1945.

The return to Britain after the war, with the added PTSD, often resulted in domestic abuse.

Kim, who was born in Romsey, said the book is "an honest account of how a low socio-economic family, a mother, and daughter, coped alone at home during WW2". 

Kim, who now lives and travels between Devon and Boston USA, said: “I knew the story of my grandad’s return from the war out in the Far East as I had lived with them on and off whilst I grew up. 

Hampshire Chronicle: Kim Wheeler's book The Burma Railway and PTSD

"I knew what an incredible story it was and that my grandad's journey as a Far East POW was an amazing story of endurance and survival.

"Together, during her [Kim’s mother] Covid isolation and her only visitor, I let her tell her story in great detail for the last time as it turned out.

"June passed in April 2021 when I had almost finished it. June wanted men like her father not to be forgotten, indeed they were called ’The Forgotten Army’ at that time.

“She also wanted generations of her family to know a little of who they were and what they endured during WW2 and for years after. They were very ordinary people who experienced an extraordinary moment in history."

The book took nearly a year to write following June’s death, with Kim struggling to revisit the early manuscripts of the book.

Before June died she had read 70 per cent of the manuscript and Kim said she was happy with it.

She said: "She urged me to see if anyone would be interested in publishing it. I think she would be very proud and hopeful that it may help anyone struggling with mental health.”

Kim’s connections to the Armed Forces don’t stop there, her husband is a retired chief diver from the Royal Navy.

Before Kim’s grandfather John 'Jack’ Hart was called up for military duty during World War Two, he lived in King’s Somborne, before settling in North Baddesley. 

He worked as a labourer between Southampton and Andover and during the war, he was “taken prisoner by The Japanese at The Fall of Singapore and then forced to build The Burma Railway, specifically The Bridge over The River Kwai.”