POW identity 'disc' : Lieutenant D Junor, 2/1 Australian Fortress Company

Small rectangular metal identity badge with a safety pin on the reverse for attachment. The badge has been engraved with a square border and divided into three parts. The top left division contains an engraved Japanese character which translates as 'AUSTRALIAN'. Next to this, in the top right division is a second Japanese character which translates as 'SENIOR OFFICER'. Beneath these divisions, along the length of the border is the number '2715'. All the engraved lines have been filled in with black paint. The back of the badge bears similar engraved information but has been more roughly executed. On this side the character for 'SENIOR OFFICER' has been infilled with red paint. The number scratched in beneath the characters is '9216'.

Issued by the Japanese to NX71145 Lieutenant Donald Junor who served in 2/1 Australian Fortress Engineers during the Second World War. Junor was born in Victoria in 1915 and he joined the Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) in Melbourne in 1936. In May 1941 he was commissioned as a lieutenant and shortly after this, in July 1941 he joined the AIF to serve with 2/1 Australian Fortress Engineers,attached to Sparrow Force. In December 1941 he sailed from Darwin in the armed merchant cruiser, HMAS Westralia, alongside SS Zealandia carrying troops from 2/40 Battalion. The ships arrived at Koepang Bay, Timor later in the month.

For a brief period in February 1942 Junor saw action fighting with 2/40 Battalion as an infantryman, not an engineer. After surviving a bombing raid by Japanese aircraft he was taken prisoner by Japanese forces. He was first taken to the Prisoner of War (POW) camp Osesapa Besar where he was interned for a period of seven months. In September 1942 he was transferred to a camp at Tandjong Priok and in January 1943 he was moved again to a camp at Makesuri. He was transferred for the final time in April 1943 to Tjideng camp where he acted as a working party officer until his release and repatriation to Singapore by air in September 1945. In October he boarded the ship SS Tamaroa to return to Sydney. As a result of his treatment as a POW Junor spent the next eleven months in hospital. He was discharged from the AIF a year later in August 1947.