Circled is Julian's grandfather (on Dad's side), Lawson Tate Vanderput (born in 1888). Sitting with him is the Governor of the British Crown Colony, Shenton Thomas (3rd from the right), and the leader of the China National Council, headed by Tan Kah Kee (2nd from the right). This group of men was formed as a junta to govern the state when the Colonial government collapsed in 1941. Mr. Vanderput was asked to participate as the leading industrialist business man of Singapore, and under his command, thousands of British and Chinese volunteered to help construct defence works and to perform other essential services. The medals he wears were from his military service during World War I (when he fought for the British). He also wears the red circular badge of office (as do the 3 other men) of being asked to form the junta. The junta formally collapsed during the bloody Battle of Singapore in which over a 100,000 British, Chinese, and Indian soldiers died, with over 35,000 more wounded. The British prime minister, Winston Churchill, called it the "worst disaster" in British military history. The junta tried to protect the famous Alexandra Barracks Hospital, but Japanese soldiers broke in and massacred all the staff and patient soldiers, some undergoing surgery. These 6 men of the junta were caught and tortured by the Japanese in their concentration work camps in Malaysia. Finally, on September 5, Commonwealth troops arrived aboard British warships, and a week later, on the steps of the municipal building, the Japanese military command in Singapore surrendered to the supreme Allied commander in Southeast Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, whom Mr. Vanderput knew personally. Mr. Vanderput survived the war, fled to Australia afterwards with those who remained of his family, once finally re-united, and lived peacefully until passing away from complications due to Parkinson's disease in 1969.