Wirral prisoner of war immortalised by Alec Guinness in Bridge On The River Kwai honoured in new exhibition

Jun 18 2009 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

A PRISONER of War whose life was celebrated in the famous movie The Bridge On The River Kwai is at the centre of a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North.

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Philip Toosey, originally from Birkenhead, was one of the best known and respected senior British officers on the Thailand-Burma railway and was awarded the OBE for his conduct as a PoW.

His spell in the PoW camp was immortalised by actor Alec Guinness in the Oscar-winning film about the dreadful conditions endured by prisoners forced to build the bridge.

Lt Col Toosey is one of those remembered in the Captured exhibition at the Manchester museum, running until January 3, 2010, which features photographs and even nails and track from the Burma railway, as well as exhibits from European PoW camps.

One of the photos featured right shows the bridge just days before it was completed. It was a memento given to the lieutenant colonel and has never been published before.

His granddaughter, Julie Summers, said she remembered his "delicious sense of humour" and "incredible humanity", but said he was extremely modest.

She said: "He was in his early 40s when they were in the camp and probably old enough to be the father of most of the soldiers there. They looked up to him.

"Because the world of PoWs is so black and white, they needed someone who could deal with that, and the old boy could.

"But he would never allow anyone to call him a hero and always said he was just doing his job, to bring as many of them back as he could."