Canada, My Country

Travelling across the world to finally settle in a new country 15,000 kms away

- Alice Burnett

My father, Alois Cepka, was born in Ostrava, Moravia, Czechoslovakia in 1910. He trained with Bata, a Czech company, in the rubber ware department and worked his way up. Because of his extensive expertise in exporting tires, and knowledge of English, he was offered a job in Singapore, Malaysia, to open a motor tire division for Bata, (who became a world-wide shoe company) to distribute tires in the Far East. He began work in Singapore in March, 1938, and worked there for eight years. When WWll made its way to the Pacific after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, my dad was mobilized as he had enlisted in the British volunteer army. He later became a prisoner-of-war and was incarcerated in the Changi POW Camp after Japanese forces invaded the island of Singapore.