Irish documentary WHO WAS GUNNER MASON to be broadcast on RTE 1 Tonight
WHO WAS GUNNER MASON, directed by Geraldine Creed, will be broadcast tonight, Tuesday 15th November, on RTE1 at 10.15 as part of the Hidden History series.Produced with finance from Bord Scannan na hEireann/the Irish Film Board, the documentary traces the journey of an Irish man who became a Prisoner of War of the Japanese in World War II and worked on the railway line made famous by the ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’.
The presenter, Cathal O’Shannon, served in Burma at the very end of the war with the Royal Air Force. Cathal’s journey takes him to Thailand, Singapore, Australia, England and Ireland where he meets survivors of the ‘forgotten war’ in the Far East. The programme not only traces the life of James Mason, a Gunner with the Royal Artillery but also gives a full, honest and detailed account of what it was to live in the POW camps along the Thai/Burma border.
Gunner, James “Trixie” Mason, Royal Artillery, Service Number 872568 died in 1943, and is buried in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery of Thailand. This is the story of his short life.