The Forgotten Highlander
Memoir Accessible Primary Sources
🇬🇧 British
A Gordon Highlander survives Singapore, the Death Railway, a torpedoed hell ship, and the Nagasaki blast — and stays silent for sixty years.
The Verdict
Perhaps the unluckiest and most resilient man of the entire war, who stayed silent for sixty years. Alistair Urquhart, a Gordon Highlander, survived the fall of Singapore, slave labour on the Death Railway, the torpedoing of a Japanese hell ship, days adrift at sea, and finally a POW camp near Nagasaki when the atomic bomb fell. That any one man endured all of it is barely credible; that he set it down, plainly and without self-pity, at the age of ninety, is a gift to memory. A testament for the dead of the Railway who could not speak.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- An almost unbelievable survival memoir
- Readers who want first-hand POW testimony
- The Death Railway and the hell ships
- A plainspoken witness account
Look elsewhere if you want
- A broad history of the Far East war
- Readers sensitive to sustained brutality
- Strategic or operational content
Why We Rated It 4.5
Historical Context
Alistair Urquhart, a soldier of the Gordon Highlanders, was captured at the fall of Singapore in 1942, forced to labour on the Burma-Thailand Railway, survived the sinking of a Japanese transport ship and days at sea, and was a prisoner near Nagasaki at the time of the atomic bombing. He published the memoir in 2010, in his late eighties.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Little, Brown (2010)First edition.
PaperbackThe standard reading edition.
Read It Alongside
Ship of Ghosts James Hornfischer · 2006 · ★ 4.5
Popular History 
The Bridge on the River Kwai Pierre Boulle · 1952 · ★ 4.1
Historical Fiction 
King Rat James Clavell · 1962 · ★ 4.6
Historical Fiction Collector's Corner
A recent title; inexpensive and easy to find. Check current listings. → Check listings on AbeBooks.
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-1616084158
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Ship of Ghosts James Hornfischer · 2006 · American
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Did one man really survive all of that?
- Yes — Urquhart endured the fall of Singapore, the Death Railway, a torpedoed prison ship, and captivity near Nagasaki during the atomic bombing.
- Why did he wait so long to tell it?
- Like many survivors, he stayed silent for decades; he wrote it late in life so the dead of the Railway would not be forgotten.