Arch Flanagan was a sergeant in the Australian Army in World War II. As a prisoner of war he worked on the Burma-Thailand Railway. He wrote a brief account of his life, two short stories and an obituary on his commanding officer, Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, published in The Line: A Man's Experience of the Burma Railway; A Son's Quest to Understand (2005). The work included commentary by his son, the writer, Martin Flanagan.