Ernest Gordon

Ernest Gordon (31 May 1916 – 16 January 2002) was the former Presbyterian dean of the chapel at Princeton University. A native of Scotland, as an officer in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Gordon spent three years in a Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camp during the Second World War. He chronicled his experiences on the Death Railway in his book Through the Valley of the Kwai. The book served as an inspiration to the film To End All Wars, where he was portrayed by actor Ciarán McMenamin. The film opened in 2001, and the film's DVD release, which came out after his passing, dedicated the film to his memory.

Captain Ernest Gordon was a company commander with the 2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He fought in several battles in the Malayan Campaign and the Battle of Singapore. He was one of the last Allied soldiers to cross the causeway from Johore before it was blown up. After the capture of Singapore, he escaped to Java, and attempted to sail several thousand miles from Padang to Sri Lanka with a group of other British officers in a native fishing boat. His boat was captured by some Japanese warships, and he was returned to Singapore as a prisoner of war.

Ernest found his sense of self and spirituality while a prisoner and one of the participant soldiers who helped build The Bridge on the River Kwai. As history shows, the Japanese were especially cruel to their prisoners. The death rate was quite high. He underwent very torturous events, that led to his being placed in the "Death Ward" designated for those who were not expected to survive. (These conditions included malnutrition, beriberi, malaria, tropical ulcer, and an appendectomy.)

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