BALDING Harold Methuen VX41468 D Coy [B Force]

Harold BALDING was born on 13th December 1899 in Boort Victoria.

When he enlisted on 16 July 1940 he lived in Warrnambool Victoria and was married.

Harold died a prisoner of war on 3rd April 1945.

Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956), Saturday 10 November 1945, page 11

Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX41468 Corporal Harold Methuen Balding, 2/29th Battalion, Australian Infantry. He was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1494 POW's that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942.

Corporal Balding, aged 45, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 3 April 1945. He was the son of Albert Edward and Millicent Louise Balding, and the husband of Beatrix Bertha Balding, of Warrnambool, Vic. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 16. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)