ROBERTS Leslie John VX55846 HQ Coy [B Force]

Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX55846 Private Leslie John Roberts, 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. Private Roberts, aged 31, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 13 February 1945. He was the son of Mr and Mrs A. Roberts, of Fitzroy, 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.)