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Albert Ient's Fellow POWs

New Book Published About WWIIThese Valiant Men Cover

These Valiant Men, by Vic Ient, records the true life experiences of 8 servicemen, including Albert Ient, who were held prisoners in Japan during World War II

When my father died in 1988, I decided it was time I wrote something about the Ient family and genealogy. Like for many other family historians, this decision really came too late. I should have asked my father a lot more questions before he died. That said, I’ve been able to gather quite a lot of information about my father’s history and in particular about his capture in Hong Kong and his life as a POW. Naturally, not having interviewed him in detail means there were gaps in my research.

However, I have been very lucky to meet two of my father’s fellow POWs and through the publication of this website have had a number of people contact me with information about the experiences of their own relations during World War II.

This section of the website covers the stories of these people:

Maynard Skinner, who served with my father in Hong Kong, and who was taken to Japan on the infamous Lisbon Maru.

Wilfred Batty, who was in the same POW camp as my father, and travelled home with him after the war.

Terence Kelly, who published a book about life with the Japanese in the POW camp where my father was held captive along with Wilfred and other serviceman.

Philip ('Chick') Henderson, who I met by chance at a Far East POW meeting of the Java Club in August 2014 and found out he was in the same POW camp as my father. 

Harold Bates and Monty Truscott, who were both colleagues of my father and POWs, whose story is transcribed from a BBC interview. They were members of the Royal Corps of Signals, both of whom fought in the World War II Battle for Hong Kong in 1941.

(Click any of the names above to see their biographies.)

Through this website I’ve been lucky to have had a number of people contact me with information about the experiences of their relations during WWII. I am particularly indebted to Adrian Batty for his cooperation relating to his father’s experiences as a POW. Adrian’s father, Wilfred Batty, was incarcerated in the same POW camp as my father. My thanks to Adrian for allowing me to publish his father’s story. Sadly, Adrian died in 2020. His research work however lives on though his biography about his father in my book ‘These Valiant Men’ now published in paperback.



Throught Adrian I was introduced to the Java 1942 Club, who I am also indebted to, as without their existence I would never have met Chick Henderson whose biography is also recorded in my book.


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My thanks to those POWs who have allowed me to publish their stories and to Adrian Batty for allowing me to publish his father’s story.

For my father, Albert Ient's, story click here.

For more information of WWII in the Far East click here.

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