Helen Senior

Photograph by W H Cumming of Weymouth and Dorchester, undated.

Helen Senior, from Dorchester, travelled to India in 1939 to marry her fiancé, Ernest Edward (Ted) Senior, a warrant officer in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps. Ted was taken prisoner by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Like thousands of other POWs Ted endured a terrible ordeal in captivity. He found solace in writing poetry and his love for Helen inspired many of his compositions.

From a collection of 52 photographs relating to Major Ernest Edward (Ted) Senior, Dorsetshire Regiment, Indian Army Ordnance Corps and the Ordnance Branch of the Independent Indian Army, 1918-1952.