Tragedy at Tamparuli Bridge - 1960

[Tommy]

A photo was posted on the old REMLR forum showing the extraction of a Series 1 army ambulance from a river during the Malayan conflict. Little was known about this photo at the time of posting.

The following tells the story of the Land Rover and the tragedy that occurred at the Tamparuli bridge in 1960.

The British Royal Engineers were stationed at Paradise Camp North Borneo to build and improve roads, build and improve bridges and build an airstrip at Kota Belud. That day 18 May 1960 a local woman living in Kampong Saya in Kota Belud had been seriously injured. Two soldiers attached to the unit, Private J.W.N. Hall, Royal Army Medical Corps, and Driver D.C. Cooper, Royal Army Service Corps were transporting the woman to Jesselton.

Pte. Hall, on reaching the bridge where water was flowing over it, got out of the Landrover and was guiding Dvr. Cooper as he tried to negotiate the bridge. The woman was strapped in the vehicle in the back. The water current was so strong that eventually the Landrover was swept into the river. Pte. Hall dived in to try and rescue his colleague but to no avail.

About 3 days later both the bodies surfaced and were recovered, as was the Land Rover. Subsequently the two soldiers were buried at Camp Paradise. The Land Rover was eventually pulled from the river by a Scammell wrecker truck.













Looking in the same direction, the bridge as it is today.

[juddy]

I am sure I have been over that river...

[Phoenix]

A very sad story, and an interesting precursur to our own forward area ambulance shorties.

[4bee]

But no mention of the patient strapped inside the vehicle.   One can only assume she also perished.