Pacific Star : Private J T Marsden, 2/20 Battalion

Places
Accession Number REL34162.002
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Medal
Physical description Bronze
Maker Unknown
Place made United Kingdom
Date made c 1946
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Description

Pacific Star. Impressed on reverse with recipient's details.

History / Summary

This medal was issued to Private (Pte) John Talbot Marsden of Mount George, New South Wales. Pte Marsden, a bush worker by trade, enlisted in the AIF on 20 June 1940 and embarked from Sydney on 3 February 1941, arriving in Singapore with 2/20 Battalion on 18 February 1941. When Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942 Marsden was officially listed as 'Missing/Prisoner of War' . He spent the next three and a half years in the Japanese prison camp at Changi and was released on 5 September 1945. He embarked from Singapore aboard Hospital Ship Oranje on 15 September that year and arrived in Sydney on 28 September. That same day he had his left leg, badly wounded by shrapnel, amputated at the thigh. Marsden was discharged on medical grounds on 26 November 1946.