There was Never a Doubt

Jane Clezy never doubted that the love of her life would return home safely from the war, despite years of silence. Charles Gray was serving as a corporal in the Australian infantry forces, when he was captured by the Japanese during the Fall of Singapore in February 1942. He spent the next three and a half years in the notorious Changi and Kranji prisoner-of-war camps, surviving horrors that changed him forever.

The couple met in 1938, when Charles was sent to Mount Gambier as part of his training to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church. Jane grew up in the South Australian town where her father was an auctioneer, respected for his keen business sense and knowledge of livestock. Her mother, Elsy, was the daughter of a local bank manager, who moved to a fruit block at Coonawarra after his retirement.