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Funeral held for WW2 Last Post bugler Arthur Lane | Funeral held for WW2 Last Post bugler Arthur Lane |
(35 minutes later) | |
A veteran who played the Last Post to mark the deaths of his fellow prisoners of war has had the same tribute paid to him after an appeal from his family. | |
Arthur Lane, 94, was held by the Japanese during World War Two and played the bugle piece for captives who died on the Burma-Thailand Railway. | |
The soldier, from Stockport, performed it more than 200 times in three-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. | |
Mr Lane's family asked for someone to return the favour at his own funeral. | |
Musician Mike Greaves and his son stepped forward after an appeal on BBC Radio Manchester. | |
Mr Lane's daughter, Glennys Singleton, said her father - who was in the Manchester Regiment - was known as "the musician to the dead", as he played the Last Post for any prisoner who died. | |
She said: "He had to work on the railway like everyone else, but at the end of the day there would be several bodies laid out and they would do a funeral pyre, or they would bury them and then dad would play the Last Post for his comrades. | She said: "He had to work on the railway like everyone else, but at the end of the day there would be several bodies laid out and they would do a funeral pyre, or they would bury them and then dad would play the Last Post for his comrades. |
"To get someone to play for him was the least I could do, as it was the last thing he could do for his comrades." | "To get someone to play for him was the least I could do, as it was the last thing he could do for his comrades." |
Steve Morris said Mr Lane played the Last Post at the funeral of his cousin, Private Eric Fletcher, who died in 1942 at a camp in Singapore. | |
"I was so sad to hear that Arthur had passed away," Mr Morris said. "He was a very brave man. He was a man this country can be very proud of." | |
About 13,000 Allied Prisoners and up to 100,000 civilian forced labourers died while constructing the notorious Thailand-Burma railway under the Japanese during 1942 and 1943. | About 13,000 Allied Prisoners and up to 100,000 civilian forced labourers died while constructing the notorious Thailand-Burma railway under the Japanese during 1942 and 1943. |
Allied prisoners were shipped to Thailand from neighbouring countries to build the vital railway link for the Japanese military. | Allied prisoners were shipped to Thailand from neighbouring countries to build the vital railway link for the Japanese military. |
Using primitive tools and under great hardship, they constructed a 57-mile (415km) track in 14 months - a project it was thought would take five years. | |
It was dubbed the "Death Railway" because of the huge numbers of lives it claimed. | It was dubbed the "Death Railway" because of the huge numbers of lives it claimed. |