Ahead of the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday 15 August, Kenilworth Nub News is sharing a short series on the town's connections to the Second World War and the war in the Pacific. The town will mark VJ Day with a short service at the Abbey Fields war memorial at 11am on Friday.

Today's account comes from Cllr Adrian Marsh.

My father, Thomas F.A. Marsh, joined the British Army before the war began in 1939.

Serving with the Royal Artillery, he saw action in Egypt and India, later in the dense jungles of Burma.

Commissioned in the field, he rose to the rank of Acting Major.

He rarely spoke of the hardships of jungle warfare, once coming face to face with a King Cobra, and another time engaging a Japanese soldier in close quarters, unsure afterwards who had screamed the loudest.

He left the army in 1947 with the honorary rank of Captain, carrying with him not only a deep sense of duty, but a lifelong wariness of snakes. 

My great-uncle, Richard Milne, was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and endured the horrors of the Burma Railway as a prisoner of war.

After years of silence and uncertainty, the family finally received word in October 1945 that he had survived and was in Melbourne, waiting for a ship to bring him home. 

Their stories are a poignant reminder of the sacrifice, resilience and humanity shown by so many in that brutal theatre of war.