§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of ex-servicemen and women who are former Far East prisoners of war. [105239]
§ Mr. Spellar50,016 Service personnel from the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom were captured by Japanese forces during the Second World War. No centrally collated figures exist of the number of former FEPOWS still living since, once their military liability had ended, any subsequent deaths of ex-Service personnel were not centrally recorded.