Filtering by Tag: HQ Coy

COWLING, Gordon Basil VX35154 HQ Coy [H Force]

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

SILENT HISTORIES

Dianne Cowling, Proud daughter of Pte Gordon (Mouse) Cowling, 2/29th HQ Coy, H Force

In May 2018, I was approached by the ExPOWRA of Victoria with a request, that had been made to them, for volunteers willing to be interviewed by a photo journalist who is writing a series called ‘Silent Histories’. The subheading is ‘The effects of the Japanese occupation during WWII and its enduring effects’. This amazing young man is looking at the effect of major devastating events throughout history on the hidden or otherwise invisible victims behind these events. The untold story if you like.

Previously completed works include two stories with photos of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant in Ukraine and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. A further study was completed in 2016 looking at the invisible victims of Bikini nuclear testing in 1954.

In 2014 a study of those in Japan who still live in the shadows because of injuries sustained during the WWII bombings was completed. This study brought into the light how these children with war related injuries (not of their own volition) still living in shame of their injuries, forced to live harsh lives, unable to cure their wounds, concealing their pain, hiding their scars and sparing others the discomfort of seeing them!

The current work needed volunteers, descendants of exPOW’s, who would be willing to talk about their fathers and hopefully would have photos of exPOW’s of Japan both before and after the war.

Kazuma is a remarkable young man, not afraid to ask the hard questions or look at the unvarnished truth and has already been to Great Britain, Holland and now Australia, gathering information and photos for this new work.

What is even more valiant is that Kazuma Obara is a young Japanese artist interested in revealing the truth regardless of preconceptions or bias and deserves all the awards he has amassed so far.

His insightful questions caused me to reflect on not only who my father was in my life time but to look at what his life was and how his personality may have changed from before the war?  What was he like when I was a young child and how did his experience as a POW of Japan for 1276 days affect him upon his return and the remainder of his years? What aid or assistance did he receive with his PTSD if nay and what were my memories and that of his family and how did the way my father react or cope with his nightmares affect me and my attitudes to life?

So much to think about and find answers to but so rewarding and cathartic in so many ways; I think Kazuma may have been sorry he asked for ‘family albums’ as being a ‘creative memories’ person I lugged along two very heavy tomes for his perusal as well as a lot of single photos still not in albums as yet. I even had a set of photos that Dad had brought back with him from Singapore at the end of his captivity. Mostly street scenes of Singapore City but some of farm lands as well. Funny little black and white photos of places and unidentifiable people of various districts, taken in 1945 by some unknown person and sold in sets! Of course Dad had to buy them and kept them safe all those years since.

Questions about my father’s attitude towards Japan, and if it changed at all over the years, of course were easy to answer as Dad had made his attitude most plain when I was younger. He was adamant we were never allowed to have anything in the house that was made in Japan but as time went on his attitude changed so much that in 1989 he even bought a Nissan Blue Bird (car for those who don’t know). I remember going to a Japanese Teppanyaki Restaurant in Collins St, the first to open in Melbourne in 1975. I was wary of telling Dad for fear he would explode but when he found out he said ‘the war was a long time ago and the young people of today were not responsible for what had been done during the ‘war’.

He liked the rice diet and we always had rice in our diet always. On Saturday nights it was Dad’s turn to cook and he always cooked his version of ‘Chinese’ which of course included fried rice. We were the only family that I knew as a child who had rice as a savoury, most were used to ‘rice pudding’ but we had all sorts of exotic ‘Chinese’ dishes that included rice. Doovers were also another common dish that I had no idea came from his days as a POW until I started my own research into his war history. I thought Doovers was an Australian word, how shocked was I to find this originated from the POW days of the Japanese.

He never talked much about the worst of his experiences but now and then he would talk about things that he must have thought were appropriate for a young woman to hear. I remember he once told me that there were many prison guards that he hated with a passion but he told me of one guard ‘On the Line’ who wasn’t so bad as he did on occasion hand out cigarettes. Another time he said that many of the guards were just as bad off for food at times as the POW’s. He even told me that towards the end of the war one of the guards at Kranji (North Western camp on Singapore Island) said he hoped our side would win as he was only a slave in Japan and would go back to a horrible life. It was this guard’s hope that if our side won things would be better in Japan for him and his level of society.

Every country has its secret shames including Australia particularly in the treatment by white settlers of indigenous Australians. A project like this one that Kazuma is doing takes much courage and from it hopeful some healing for those affected will result. I thank Kazuma for telling these untold stories and look forward to the publication of this work.

How my Dad got his nickname ‘Mouse’

Growing up I only ever heard my father’s exPOW mates call him ‘Mouse’. As a kid one just accepts these things as normal and goes with the flow, however as I got older it puzzled me where this nickname came from.

So, taking my courage in my hands one day when I was only a teenager, as one never knew how my Dad would respond to any questions about his time as a POW under the Japanese, I asked him out right. Being the joker that he sometimes loved to be his offhand remark was “Oh that was because I loved cheese’.

This didn’t sound right with me as I was sure they didn’t get cheese when they were POW’s and so it continued to puzzle me until an opportunity arose for me to go to the source, his mates. I asked several over the years as I just had to get corroboration before I could finally accept that what I was being told was true.

The first person I asked was his ‘Pommy mate’ Joe when I met up with him and his family in England in 1975/76. Joe spoke of my Dad the hero – a very foreign concept for me to accept as I didn’t have a good relationship with my Dad in those days. Joe was adamant that if it wasn’t for my father he would not have survived. He said that Dad used to sneak out of the camp and scrounge food to bring back and share with his mates and so one and all said he was so quiet, small and crafty that ‘like a mouse’ there was no place that could keep him in; hence the nickname.

Other Aussie exPOW mates, including Ben West, just before he died last year, told much the same story, that Dad was a great scrounger and could get out, and back again ‘like a mouse’ without being caught, to bring back food to share.

Many books have been written about the scrounging ability of the Aussies, so I know my Dad would not have been the only one but it is a story he never shared with us. He was very quick to laud the heroic actions of others and loved to tell a good tale but when it came to talking about his own escapades without sounding anywhere near like a hero – well that he never did.

When we were children he did like to tell us stories that he thought were funny, only looking back I’m not so sure how appropriate they were for our tender ears. One story did relate to his sneaking out at night to scrounge for food, as he was nearly caught by a Japanese patrol, but according to him, he quickly ducked into a nearby cemetery. He then ran to the area that contained the mausoleums and found an unlocked door, sneaking inside he found nowhere to hide; except for coffins the place was just an empty space. Thinking quickly, he said, he opened the lid of one of the coffins, pushed the bones aside, apologising to the current occupant and climbed in and closed the lid. Once the patrol had passed he thanked his bunk mate for his hospitality, climbed out and snuck safely back into camp.

The way my Dad told the story, we were highly amused and laughed at the time but looking back I shuddered to think of the reality of that situation. The fear and the stress of being caught outside the current camp or gaol I now know would have meant a death sentence, yet even knowing this he still went. As did many others over the 1276 days of captivity, forging an unbreakable connection with their surviving mates that continued once they were back home until the day they died;

‘Lest we forget’

Dianne Cowling, Proud daughter Mouse Cowling 2/29th Battalion HQ Company H Force

BRAND, Victor VX39085 HQ Coy [F Force]

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

Victor Brand’s Memorabilia at the Shrine

Andrew Brand

It came totally out of left field when our intrepid Secretary Joy emailed me last June to advise that she had been contacted by Neil Sharkey, a curator at the Shrine, who was seeking out family members who may be in possession of memorabilia available for display relating to doctors in captivity during the Second World War. I contacted Neil who was very anxious to examine some of my father’s war memorabilia. I was very pleased to assist as after all, Victor’s bits and pieces had resided, in the main, in cupboards for some 70 years hidden from family and public view.

The proposed display was to occupy a small section of a medical installation featuring Weary Dunlop and Albert Coates. Neil was particularly interested in a number of the smaller artefacts whichh included an aluminium trench art box made in Changi, prisoner identity tag, miniature medals with Military Cross, photos and an original typed personal account (the Diary) of the Battle of Muar. Neil asked if we had something else which was overtly medical in nature. Fortunately, this prompted me to contact my sister Melanie to check if there was anything inside an old medical canvass bag which had been hanging in the shed at our family home for as long as I could remember. To my extreme surprise and delight, we discovered shell dressing, syringes, ampoules, scalpels, chloroform and miscellaneous medicine bottles. Neil was excited by this treasure but due to space restrictions and preservation requirements (especially with ampoules filled with morphine), he considered that some of these items could be used when the display was updated at some future time. 

The items are now on display and Melanie and I and our families are very proud and honoured to have these items publicly displayed by the Shrine.

HACKNEY Ben Charles NX71148 HQ Coy F Force

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

Information from Lynette Silvers Book entitled “The Bridge at Parit Surlong”

Ben Hackney was a grazier in the Bathurst District where his family were among the early pioneers. At the age of 26, Ben Hackney became part of the 2/29th Battalion, training at Bathurst, then embarked with the Battalion for Malaya in July, 1941.

 He was severely wounded in the Battle of Muar in January 1942. After 36 days in the jungle, Ben Hackney was captured and imprisoned in Pudu Gaol, Kula Lumpur, before being transferred to Changi on Singapore Island. He survived the experiences of F Force in Thailand. His evidence of the Parit Surlong massacre was crucial to the successful 1950 prosecution for war crimes of Lieutenant-General Takamo Nishimura.

 With Nishimura dead and Australia entering into a peace treaty with Japan, the events of 1942 were now a fading memory, however Hackney did not forget. He did not marry the girl whose photo had sustained him during his ordeal, but he did marry in the early 1950’s. He fathered a child, a girl, but the marriage was short lived. Haunted by the memories when awake and tormented by dreadful nightmares when asleep - he remained on the land raising cattle and sheep on Wonolabee property near Bathurst, his only brother Tom died in 1947 in a horse accident. For the last ten years of his life he became a virtual recluse, crippled with arthritis, he never forgave or forgot those responsible for the massacre at Parit Surlong. He died of emphysema in May 1984, leaving this legacy to his old battalion, the 2/29th. Ben Hackney’s death went almost unnoticed, apart from the usual announcements placed in newspapers by the funeral director.

About Ben Hackney

[From the Australian War Memorial]

Lt BC "Ben" Hackney, 2/29th Australian Inf Bn

was one of only two men to survive the Japanese massacre of wounded at Parit Sulong during the fighting on the Malay Peninsula in 1942.

The force commanded by Lt-Col CGW Anderson attempting to withdraw along the Bakri to Parit Sulong road was stopped at the bridge over the river at Parit Sulong. Unable to withdraw on the road, Anderson's men were forced to disperse through the jungle and swamps.

They left behind 165 wounded who could not travel, including Lt Hackney. After they were captured by the Japanese the wounded PoW's were brutally herded together; many of the PoW's were forced into a shed from where on the evening of the 22nd January 1942 they were tied together in small groups and taken away to be killed.

Lt Hackney, feigning death, was left behind. He crawled away and eventually found another member of his battalion, Sgt Ron Croft, who had also escaped, and they were also joined by a British soldier. The three eventually reached a Malay house where they were given assistance. Hackney who could not stand, convinced the others to leave him. The Malays, fearing reprisals by the Japanese, carried him off some distance from the house and left him. He managed to crawl from place to place, but was generally refused assistance by Malays, who feared reprisals, but was given assistance by Chinese.

On the 27th February 1942, thirty-six days after he escaped the massacre, he was caught by a party of Malays, one dressed as a policeman, taken back to Parit Sulong and handed over to the Japanese. He was again subjected to brutal treatment by the Japanese, but after a series of moves on 20th March 1942 he arrived at the Pudu gaol at Kuala Lumpur. He was later taken with other PoW's to Changi gaol.

He survived the war and returned to Australia.

MCCARTNEY, Sydney VX45838 HQ Coy [F Force]

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

Pte. Sydney Albert McCartney  -  10.7.1915 – 15.8.2014

Sydney Albert McCartney was born in Nhill to Alice and Ebenezer McCartney.  Sydney was the second youngest of 10 children and the couple’s youngest son. Growing up in Nhill, Sydney attended the local school, walking miles to and from school each day, along the way he would set rabbit traps which he checked on his way home, and I’m thinking rabbit was regularly on Alice’s menu. Like many of his generation Syd left school at a young age and went to  work for the Grain Elevator Board where he worked shoveling wheat into the silo......these were the days when hard work was ‘the order of the day’. It was during these years Sydney also played football for the local team.

With the onset of the Second World War, Sydney signed up for active service in Caulfield, joined the Army on the 10th of July, 1940, serving with  the 2/29th Battalion.  On the way to Sydney where the men were to be shipped off to War, Sydney’s company stopped over at Shepparton where they camped for a few days. It was here Sydney was to meet the lady who was to become his wife, Jean. 

In 1945 Sydney returned to Australia where he spent 6 months in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital recovering from the horrors and brutality of a prison camp and working on the Burma Railway.  

In early 1946 he successfully applied for a position with the SEC. Starting work as a labourer, Sydney went on to become a driver, a heavy float driver and then a driving instructor, giving 33 1/2 years of loyal service to the company, 1946 was also the year Sydney and Jean formalized their relationship when they married on the 6th of October. Settling into life in their rented home in Yallourn for some years they then moved into their Housing Commission home in Vale Street, which still remains the family home, just over 66 years later.  It was into this home Sydney and Jean welcomed the safe arrival of their son Geoff. 

Syd was no stranger to hard work and provided well for his family; in many ways they were quite self sufficient with both Sydney and Jean keen gardeners. While Sydney looked after the vegie garden and kept the family supplied with vegetables each day, Jean looked after the front garden where the flowers bloomed. Sydney also brought home a sheep regularly, thus there was also meat on the table.  Geoff remembers well how once his dad put his mind to do something, it was done, even if it meant working in the garage until 3 am or in the garden until midnight. Yep, there was no changing his mind; such was Syd’s stubborn streak which held him in good stead for life.

Aside to gardening Syd and Jean greatly enjoyed showing dogs and went to many shows with their Irish Setters, German Shorthaired Pointers and Hungarian Visla’s. They enjoyed great success with Paddy or its kennel name, Maxine Marksman who became the Victorian KCC Champion. Syd also enjoyed river and open water fishing with young Geoff, and many good weekends were also enjoyed with mates throwing their lines in and having a yarn or two but not while the fish were biting. Syd’s favorite pastime and hobby was shooting; he greatly enjoyed clay target shooting and he especially loved duck shooting. Each year, come duck and quail season, the family headed up to Nhill and while Sydney was out duck shooting, Geoff and Jean enjoyed time with the relatives.

 

Syd was held in high esteem at the Moe Field and Game Club where he was a Founding and Life Member of the Club.  Over the years Syd was a regular at the Club of a Thursday night where he enjoyed clay target shooting; something he continued to do  until his eye sight began failing at the age of 90 years.  Whilst no longer able to shoot Syd still enjoyed his Thursday evenings catching up with fellow members and keeping up to date with what was happening. 

Like many of his generation Syd was a man of routine, Thursdays evenings as mentioned were a regular and every Saturday he enjoyed putting a bet on at the TAB and catching up with his mates at the RSL and watching the racing.  Syd also took a keen interest in his grandson Brook’s horses, mind you, when announced Brook had another horse, his Pa’s response was, ‘another bloody horse’. Syd also maintained his interest in the Moe Football Club, which goes back to the days when he helped to level off the ground and set up the original clubrooms which were brought across from Yallourn. Syd was very much a part of Moe’s history and while he wasn’t born in here, he lived here for over 66 years and during those years he enriched the lives of his family, his friends and his community.

A man of old fashion values, Syd’s word was his bond, but most of all he was a proud family man; a loved and respected father and father in law to Geoff and Robyn, Syd was a much loved Pa to Peter and Sharon and Brook and a great pa to Macey and Benny. Everyone here can say without hesitation, what an honour and a privilege it was to know Sydney McCartney.

Syd, rest peacefully, your memory will live on.

 

Syd left us with this poem:

 

…….The End of the Road

Now that I have come to th end of the road

And the sun has set for me,

I want no rites in a gloom filled room,

Why cry for a soul set free.

Miss me, but let me go.

Syd McCartney, Bill Vanderfeen, Jack Lonsdale, regular meetings at the Moe RSL.

IRVING, Alan Lindsay VX60959 HQ Coy [F Force]

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

THIS IS THE STORY OF of ALAN (BENNY) IRVING VX60959 F FORCE HQ COY. 2nd/29th BATTALION, 8th DIVISION, AIF.

My name is Luke Oakley DePaul, I am 16 years of age, and I am currently completing Year 9 at Bayswater Secondary College.

I am the Great Grandson of Alan (Benny) Irving VX60959 F Force HQ Coy. 2nd/29th Battalion, 8th Division, AIF.

Below is a song which has been handed down through the generations of our family, my Nana and her brothers and sister used to sing it with their Dad, Benny, when they were children and have kept up the tradition.

They still sing this song at family gatherings.

I try to imagine my Great Grandfather as an 18 year old young man standing on the Harbour in Singapore singing this song.

IF WE ONLY HAD AUSTRALIA OVER HERE

I was standing on the Harbour, a showcase of first choice

Quietly reminiscing, listening to my sweetheart’s voice

In a fancy I suggested, in a vision which seemed clear

Of what strange things might happen, if we had Australia here.

If the Harbour Bridge was spanned across the Causeway

And old Freemantle came to Singapore

If Adelaide bells rang out in Bukit Timah

And Bondi Beach was lined across the shore.

If the River Yarra flowed into the Harbour

And Rockhampton on this island did appear

We would never have to roam, we would always feel at home

If we only had Australia over here….

I am very proud of my Great Grandfather and I have been studying WW1 and WW2 at school. I have a particular interest in the mental and physical health of our POW’s after they returned home from Changi.

I have used information found in the book “Heroes of F Force” collated by Don Wall in 1993, it is very informative and contains personal accounts from POW’s regarding their health and the various medical conditions at the camps. I have also gathered information on the internet from the Government Anzac portal and the 2nd/29th Battalion history.

ENLISTMENT

Benny was born on 30th June 1923.

Army Records show his Birth date as 30th June 1920.

As he was under the minimum enlistment age, Benny put his age forward and along with his mates, he enlisted at Richmond on 4th August 1941 when he was only 18 years old, he had forged his mother’s signature, as parental consent was required for anyone under the age of 21.

The thought of adventure was exciting, and he and his mates were very happy to be receiving a brand-new pair of leather boots!

After Benny was sent to Training camp for the 2/29th, his girlfriend Joan, aged 16, visited.

According to Benny, when they boarded the ships in Sydney to leave for the War, his brother Walter and brother-in-law Bill were put on one ship and Benny and mates were on another. After they set sail, Churchill was told that more troops were needed to help defend Singapore, so Churchill changed plans and split the fleet, sending ships to both Tobruk and Malaya.

Subsequently Benny then found himself on a ship bound for Singapore, while Walter and Bill were headed for Tobruk.

The following are recollections told by Benny to my grandmother Cheryl:

“After the war, Benny had a dislike for Churchill, as after being told of the desperate need for troops in Singapore, Churchill decided to keep and send the bulk of the troops, including Australians, to Europe, as he needed to defend England, the concerns for Malaya and Australia were less important to Churchill.

In Benny’s words “the Yanks saved Australia…not bloody Churchill”

Benny was forever grateful that the Americans entered the War in the South Pacific and ultimately ended it by bombing Japan, as he reckoned that there was no way that he would have survived another few years or more in Changi.

DURING CAPTIVITY.

F FORCE

Camps: Benny’s Camp was Ni Thea (Nieke) There were four major camps all located in Thailand, east of the Pagoda Pass. H.Q. was established at Nieke and there were three other camps that were named, “Songkurai, Kami and Konkoita” that were not too far away from Nieke.

F Force was comprised of 3600 Australian and 3400 British prisoners of war (POW) who marched three hundred kilometres into the absolute hell that is the Thailand jungle as part of the Construction force of the Burma-Thailand Railway. They eventually arrived there on May 1943. The Imperial Japanese Government made a policy towards the allied prisons of war which was “No work, No food.”

Conditions in the railway camps were primitive and horrific. Food was totally inadequate, beatings were frequent and severe, there were no medical supplies. Tropical diseases were rampant, and the Japanese required a level of productivity that would have been difficult for fully fit men to achieve.

In November 1943, they came out of the jungle on the railway they had helped to build. Over 2000 British and 1000 Australians died while building the railway.

Illness and death were very constant on the Burma Railway and 12,800 of more than 60,000 allied prisoners of war died due to the harsh conditions they had to go through.

The three main causes of these deaths were attributed to malnutrition, tropical diseases and being overworked, this massive death toll was caused mainly by the brutality and indifference of the Japanese soldiers.

The Aussie mateship was definitely a huge factor in helping the 2nd/29th soldier’s morale and helping them to survive all the very harsh and deadly conditions of the Burma Railway and Changi, that the Japanese enforced upon them.

CHANGI

Most Starving prisoners turned to scrounging. Snakes, fish, clams, and rodents were caught and usually shared with an inner group of friends. Medical personnel would experiment with vegetation such as weeds as a potential source of vitamins.

The diseases that the soldiers in Changi faced were tropical diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and tropical ulcers; diseases caused by overcrowding and lack of hygiene, such as dysentery and cholera; and diseases caused by a limited diet and vitamin deficiencies, such as malnutrition and beriberi.

On 26 February 1942, Sir Weary Dunlop was promoted to temporary lieutenant-colonel, Dunlop became a Japanese prisoner of war in 1942 when he was captured in Bandung, Java, Indonesia together with the hospital he was commanding.

Because of his leadership skills, he was placed in charge of prisoner of war camps in Java, and was later transferred briefly to Changi, and in January 1943 he commanded the first Australians sent to work on the Burma Railway. Dunlop’s pure dedication and heroism became a legend among other prisoners of war. They thought of him as a courageous leader and a compassionate doctor. He restored the morale of fellow prisoners of war who were trapped in the Japanese prisoner camps and helped them get through all the tough times that they had to face while they were forcefully imprisoned by the Japanese. In the words of one of his fellow friends, author Donald Stuart “He was a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of endless madness and suffering.”

My Great Grandfather held Weary Dunlop in the highest esteem. Weary attended many of the 2nd/29th Battalion POW Picnics over the years. He used to arrive in a colourful summer shirt and shorts, which resembled ‘summer pyjamas’.

HEALTH: After the War

It appears that not enough was done by the Australian Government of the time to help these men recover after being held captive for 3 years by one of the most brutal perpetrators of war crimes in modern history.

They were told not to speak of their experiences in Changi or of the horrors that they endured whilst working on the Burma Railway.

For many former POWs, post war physical and psychological problems took a significant toll on their families. Depression and moodiness required a lot of emotional support and understanding. Their wives were very strong and devoted women indeed, by supporting their husbands who had just came from hell and back.

When Benny returned home to Australia, having been “fattened up” before he left Singapore, he was a very ill young man both physically and mentally.

On 12th January 1946, Benny and Joan got married in Richmond.

Shortly after arriving in Lorne for their honeymoon, Benny was rushed back to Melbourne urgently and admitted to the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital for a lifesaving treatment.

He was to have many more stays at this superb Hospital over the years.

Benny also suffered for decades from the effects of Tropical Ulcers and Strongyloides Worms.

“Distinctive characteristics of this Strongyloides parasite are its ability to persist and replicate within a host for decades. They are caused by poor sanitation conditions“

Benny unfortunately suffered from this condition on and off for the rest of his life.

MATESHIP

Benny kept in touch with his mates from the 2nd/29th Battalion, particularly John McFarlane who had moved to Dunkeld to work with Harry Rowbottem, the whole family spent many extended holidays there with John and June and their 13 children, even attending school there for 2 months during one of Benny’s “bad times”,

The time that John and Benny spent together was the best mental therapy and emotional support for both of them.

John McFarlane would come down from Dunkeld every Anzac Eve. Apparently, after attending the March and the Reunion, John and Benny would not arrive back at Benny’s until 2 days later.

For many years, our family attended the annual POW’s Picnic held at Keast Park in Carrum on the last Sunday in November, it was a wonderful day attended by many of the 2nd/29th men, all enjoying the time they were spending with each other, talking about all the things that happened in the past which only they were there to actually experience and fully understand.

The family also had regular social visits to see “the Mouse” Gordon Cowling and “Goldy” Peter Goulden, again this was the best type of therapy that they could ever ask for.

Benny worked at the Government Aircraft Factory in Fisherman’s Bend for many decades until he had to eventually retire due to multiple complicated health reasons, most of which were a direct result of the illnesses and diseases that he developed during his time being in Changi and on the Burma Railroad.

By the early 50s, Benny would still not allow anything that was made in Japan to be purchased, he refused to support any Japanese company.

In later years, a Fighting Fund was set up by the 2nd/29th Battalion in an effort to raise funds for legal representation to gain compensation from the Japanese for the work carried out on the Burma Railroad.

The men of the Battalion all contributed $100 yearly for many years.

Benny was very proud of his one and only 21st birthday card which he received whilst he was in Changi. His mates had scrounged some paper and coloured pencils to make him a personal birthday card just for him which also had a small key cut out of cardboard with a piece of string and a end of a wooden match stick.

Benny kept this card and was able to bring it back home with him to Australia. The family still has the birthday card which has been handed down to his Grandson, Ben Irving Jr who is now the custodian of the birthday card. The card is now 79 years old.

Years ago, Benny was asked if he wanted the birthday card to be kept in the Australian War Museum in Canberra. His ultimate reply was “Why would I do that? It’s my Birthday card, not theirs.”

Together with his wife Joan, they were able to raise 4 children and were happily married for 50 years up until his eventual passing in 1996. The 2nd/29th Battalion helped Benny with medical supplies needed during his final fight with his illness. Benny was very grateful for the assistance that he received from his Battalion and the visits he received from them.

LUKE OAKLEY DEPAUL

KING, David Leslie VX37484 HQ Coy [F Force]

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

VALE

David Leslie King (VX37484)

David passed away at Bethlehem Hospital, South Caulfield, on Saturday 25 January 2014, aged 93 years. His funeral service was conducted by Father Peter Wilson at the Wilson Chapel, Springvale Cemetery, on 6 February. Peter delivered the eulogy, John Lack spoke on behalf of the Association, and Hugh Gordon, President of the Oakleigh-Carnegie RSL sub-branch, conducted the RSL service. The Association was represented by Lindsay Garner, Doug Ogden, and John and Sue Lack.

 The Eulogy

Peter Wilson cited duty, decency, reliability, honour, dignity, and respect as qualities that David not only held in high esteem but practised every day during his time on earth. He was a hard-working and considerate man who could never resist the opportunity to support and help his family or friends, given half the chance. He saw a lot in his lifetime, including a world ravaged by war. David and his brother answered the call of their country: his brother lost his life, and David became a prisoner of war. He believed that Australia was the best country in the world, and was proud serving it.

David was born in 1920 in Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia, the second eldest of four children (Robert, David, Arthur, and Mavis) of Victorian-born Leslie and Western Australian-born Mary. David moved to Melbourne as a child, and lived in the South Yarra/Prahran area, before moving to Chadstone where he and his family lived for the past 45 years. David was devoted to his family: his daughter Beverley (from an earlier marriage), his wife Marge and their five sons Leslie, Peter, Wayne, David and Terry. He worked two jobs in order to support his family: a milkman by night and a taxi driver by day.

David never asked much from life: he was always an active and contented man. An early riser, he loved his house and working on it, and got most pleasure from tinkering in his garden. A Norfolk pine that now stands almost 20 metres tall in David’s backyard was brought home on the back seat of his reliable Ford Falcon (KEV127), which served him and his family well for many years. He was a devoted Collingwood supporter, and would often feed the magpies that came to his back door, he said, for a feed and a chat. He had a fantastic memory and could recall the smallest but significant details of his life with great clarity and then magically weave them into his story.

David was a well-liked and well-respected man, someone you could trust and rely on, someone who enjoyed his Tattslotto or a bet on the horses, someone who would always be there if needed. I’m sure he counted himself lucky to have such a caring and loving family to help nurse and care for him as his condition deteriorated, and I’m also sure he gained a great deal of comfort from knowing they were there for him, as he had been in the past for them. Despite his worsening illness, he never grumbled or complained about his obvious discomfort. This is a rare virtue.

Tribute to David King

delivered by John Lack on 6 February 2014

David King was born in Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia on 11 June 1920. The family came to Melbourne and David went to school wherever his family happened to be living in the Depression years – Abbotsford, Richmond, East Melbourne, Kensington, and (finally) Windsor. He left school in 1934, aged 14. His first job was weeding the fairways of Albert Park golf club, and in 1939 he was working at Macpherson’s nut and bolt factory in Richmond. He had joined the militia, but on the outbreak of war his intention of enlisting for overseas service was interrupted by hospitalisation after a car accident. Hence he missed enlisting with his mates for the Middle East: ‘So I joined the AIF to catch up with my older brother Robert, who’d already joined.’

David enlisted at Royal Park on 15 July 1940, just a fortnight after his brother Robert - older by two years - enlisted at Caulfield. They were soon in the same training battalions at Mt Martha and Bonegilla. David (VX37484) and Bob (VX40646) joined the 2/29th Bn AIF on 29 November 1940, and sailed with their Battalion for Malaya in July 1941. The Eighth Division AIF in Malaya would consist of only three Brigades (the fourth being scattered across the islands to Australia’s north), and they were sent to Malaya with the thought that they might be replaced by British-Indian troops and sent to the Middle East where Australians were engaged in the ‘real’ war. But, of course, Japan launched a series of lightning attacks on the British, Dutch and American colonies and territories in December 1941. In less than four weeks the IJA sent the British-Indian forces reeling southwards, towards Johore, the southernmost state of the Malayan Federated States. Only in the second week of January 1942 was the Battalion sent into battle.

David, a private, and a driver attached to C Company, and Robert, a corporal also in C Company, became part of the fierce fighting after the battalion (less one of its five companies) was sent to ‘mop up’ a force of 200 Japanese who had crossed the Muar River. Instead of 200 of the enemy they faced several regiments of the crack Imperial Japanese Guard division. Outnumbered, outgunned and eventually surrounded, the 2/29th had to fight a desperate battle for survival, a battle that saw almost half of the Battalion killed in action (including its Commanding Officer on the first day, and his 2IC on the second), wounded, or missing in the surrounding swamps as it split up into groups and attempted to break free. David as a driver was trucking men and supplies through enemy infiltrated jungle and rubber plantations, and once the order came –‘every man for himself’ – he drove to Yong Peng. The remnant of the Battalion fought its way eastwards to join up with the 2/19th. When Battalion HQs later put the story together, Robert was reported missing, then reported believed wounded, and finally recorded as last seen between Bakri and Parit Sulong during a bayonet charge on 20 January, one of several charges mounted against Japanese machine guns in an attempt to break through on the Muar–Bakri road. In one of these astonishing bayonet charges, the Australians advanced singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’.

At Yong Peng, David was asking various men as they drifted into Yong Peng ‘Have you seen my brother?’ Eventually one told him how Robert had died. I’m not sure when the King family learnt of Robert’s fate. They may have been notified in 1942 simply that he was ‘missing’. Only in 1946 was his widow issued with a death certificate. David survived Muar and Bakri to rejoin his Battalion on Singapore Island. Here they were shelled and bombed continuously for days. He was one of those shocked by the British surrender on 15 February.

The Australians marched off to Changi prison camp. David was part of working parties on Singapore Island, including the Great World, a former amusement park near the Singapore docks. His closest mates were ‘Big Steve’ Lawson, Gordon (‘The Mouse’) Cowling (from Diggers Rest), and Peter (‘Goldy’) Goulden. David, ‘Big Steve’ and ‘The Mouse’ were put to work repairing trucks for export to Japan. After he deliberately bogged one truck, David was sent to labour on the docks. And then in 1943 he became part of F Force, sent to Thailand to build a section of the Burma-Thailand railway. He survived nine months on the railway, Battalion records indicating that he suffered multiple bouts of severe malaria, and also leg ulcers, but through good fortune or an iron constitution or both, none of the shocking diseases that carried men off in their thousands. David came down to Bangkok by rail, and was shipped to Singapore. He was thankful to have escaped the fate of those mates sent off to work in mines and factories in Japan, which meant running the gauntlet of American submarines. When the war ended he was at River Valley camp, marching out each day to the Tanglin hill area to dig tunnels that POWs suspected were intended as their graves in the event of an Allied invasion of Malaya.

David returned home with a large contingent of his Battalion on the Esperance Bay, arriving in Melbourne by rail from Sydney in October 1945. His mother and brother Arthur were waiting for him How much had his family heard of him in those four years? And how much had the King family heard of Robert? Probably very little, with communication by means of a few post cards sporadic, and months out of date when they arrived home. Homecoming, affected with the sadness of Robert’s death, was brightened for David by seeing his daughter Beverley for the first time in more than four years: the three-month old baby grown into a toddler.

When David agreed in 2011 to be interviewed for the Battalion’s records, and when I spoke to him in 2012 at his home, and again just weeks before his death, David always talked about the positive things of his war experience: the mateship, the comradeship. Somehow, after some of the worst experiences of loss, and enslavement and mistreatment, David remained unembittered. A gentle and lovely man, proud of his Battalion, loyal to the Association, mindful of the mates who had gone before, and above all proud of his long marriage to Marge, his six children, and his grandchildren.

The Battalion family – of veterans and their families – salutes you David for your example of courage in the adversity of battle, captivity, and illness, and for upholding the highest standards of the AIF, in war and in peace. May you rest in peace.

CHRISTIE Robert William VX48633 HQ Coy F Force (Ponds Party)

Added on by 2/29 Battalion.

VALE ROBERT WILLIAM ‘BOB’ CHRISTIE OAM

VX48633, 2/29th Battalion AIF

‘Bob’ Christie, for that is how everyone knew him, passed away peacefully on 10th September 2014. He had reached the remarkable age of 97 years of ago. 

Bob leaves behind his much loved family and a great life of service to his country, his community, his ex-POW mates and his church.

I first met Bob Christie in 2006, when I was just about to embark on the writing of a book about ex-POWs of the Thai Burma Railway. Both Bob and Berris welcomed me into their home and at the instant I walked into Bob’s office, I knew I was in the heart of our history and the history of the 2/29th Battalion Association. Bob was ordered and he had kept anything and everything about the men he had fought with and survived with on the Thai Burma railway.  In their honour. As we were walking to the gate after our talk I mentioned how beautiful his house was and he said, ‘I was born in this house. In the front room, in fact.’ I came away from our meeting knowing I had met someone special. 

Bob Christie loved and honoured the men he served with and he was never going to forget them. The service to celebrate Bob’s life at Malvern Presbyterian Church was packed, as Andrew Coffey, the son of one of Bob’s 2/29th mates Jack Coffey, commented to me later. And in typical form, Bob had requested no flowers, rather donations be made to Legacy. 

When Bob was past 90 years of age he stood up on the dais of the Shrine of Remembrance, in front of a packed audience, to thank those for attending the launch of his book, ‘Surviving Captivity’.  Bob had managed, at his great age, to write an account of his life, the Malay campaign he had fought in and his diary notes from the Line.  The book was published in 2010 to wide acclaim. There is never any way to keep a good or a busy man down and Bob Christie was both.

Bob served in Singapore; he fought and men, his friends, fell by his side.  Survival turned to capture through the horrors of the Thai Burma railway.  Bob was a Signaller; he fought at the Battle for Muar, was captured and sent up the Line in Pond’s Party in F Force.   If there can be any Force you did it worse on the Line than others, I will cope the abuse by saying that Pond’s Party has that accolade. Bob Christie came home and took up the position of Association Secretary of the 2/29th Battalion Association for over 60 years in order to closely remember, and help others to know of those men he knew so well. Bob was awarded the OAM in 2003 for service to veterans and their families.  He cared for all until his death.

Throughout his life, Bob Christie loved his cricket and prior to the war he worked in the insurance industry.  At Bob’s funeral, his family recounted how their father’s first position was to light the fires in the city building fireplaces of that insurance company.  Post war he returned to work within the same company and moved into a very senior position within the firm. 

One of the sweetest things Bob ever said to me was during the launch of my book at the Shrine.  It was a staggering busy day, with people in every direction wanting to catch my attention, but Bob stood there with Berris until the coast was clear and he said, ‘Thank you Pattie. You have done a great thing for the POWs this day.’  I was honestly overwhelmed by his comment, and perhaps cannot even now put into words how I felt about his graciousness, but I knew Bob meant every word; and I have never forgotten it.   My comment to him then, as now, is ‘No….it’s not you who should thank me, rather the reverse.’  So thank you Bob Christie.  

The Association would like to extend their condolences to Berris, Robert, Janella, Shan, Sarah and Ashley at the loss of a terrific fellow. Please know that we will miss Bob at our functions.

 

Pattie Wright with thanks to Andrew Coffey – 2/29th Battalion Association

Bob Christie's Retirement

Bob Christie, undoubtedly the most venerated member and the Honorary Secretary and mainstay of the Association for the last 65 years announced his retirement at the AGM on 24 April 2012. John Lack was elected to take over this role.

Bob became honorary secretary in 1947 and has worked diligently and has been the prime force in overseeing the smooth operation of the Association since that date. He has dedicated his life to ensuring that the Association operates for the wellbeing of the members and their families and to perpetuating the memory of the men and their sacrifices. With his unfailing memory and his warm and humble manner, he has always been (and will continue to be) available to provide useful information to relatives of men who have since passed on. And for all these years, Bob has had the loving and untiring support of Berris, his wife, a life member of the Association.

Bob was instrumental in the publication of the Battalion History in 1983 and the subsequent edition and reprints. It has been Bob's lifelong work and passion to ensure that the Association continues to survive and flourish and the current Committee is dedicated to these aims. Bob will continue on the Committee as our mentor. We all know that he will be around to support us and the Association until his last gasp!

Andrew Brand President

November 2012

Standing Ovation for Association Patron

The Committee resolved in April that Bob Christie be invited to become Patron of the Association. John Lack read the letter of invitation and Bob’s acceptance. John asked ‘Does this have the support of this AGM?’ John’s invitation to members was responded with a standing ovation of acceptance.