31 Mingle Lane, Stapleford

History of 31 Mingle Lane

Home of Leslie Leonard Baynes, veteran of the Far East WWII campaign and author.

Books:

Kept – The Other Side of Tenko (1984)

Will to Live: A Japanese POW’s memoir of Captivity and the Railway (2013)

The Other Side of Tenko provides a variety of information about Leslie Baynes sufficient for AI to produce this timeline:

1919 – Birth of Leonard “Snowie” Baynes in London.

1938–1939 – Joins the Territorial Army at age 19 as tensions rise in Europe.

September 1939 – Mobilised at the outbreak of World War II.

1941 – Deployment with British forces to the Far East.

December 1941 – February 1942 – Japanese advance sweeps through Malaya and towards Singapore.

15 February 1942 – Fall of Singapore; Baynes is captured and becomes a prisoner of war.

1942–1945 – Life in Japanese POW camps:
• Forced labour, malnutrition, disease
• Maintains a diary documenting daily events
• Camaraderie among prisoners becomes central to survival

August 1945 – Japanese surrender ends the war in the Far East.

Late 1945 – Baynes is liberated and returns to Britain.

Post■1945 – Struggles with physical and psychological after-effects; gradually resumes civilian life.

1984–1985 – Publication of “The Other Side of Tenko” / “Kept: The Other Side of Tenko”, based on Baynes’s wartime diary.

Later years – Book receives recognition for its honesty and ordinary soldier’s perspective; valued by historians of Far East POW experiences.

(AI2025)