Studio portrait of VX37496 Private (Pte) Kenneth Rawie Drew, 2/22 Battalion, of Wallaroo SA. Pte ...

Studio portrait of VX37496 Private (Pte) Kenneth Rawie Drew, 2/22 Battalion, of Wallaroo SA. Pte Drew was a member of the Brunswick Salvation Army Band. Twenty three members of the Salvation Army bands enlisted in 1940 and joined 2/22 Battalion band. Following the Japanese invasion of January 1942, many members of 2/22 Battalion serving on New Britain were taken prisoner of war (POW) and held at Rabaul. On 22 June 1942 Pte Drew was one of an estimated 845 POWs and 209 civilians who embarked from Rabaul aboard the Japanese transport ship MV Montevideo Maru. The POWs were members of 2/22 Battalion, No. 1 Independent Company, and other units of Lark Force. Civilians included officials of the New Guinea Administration and missionaries. The ship sailed unescorted for Hainan Island. On 1 July 1942 all the prisoners died when the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Only one member of 2/22 Band, VX29061 Private Frederick William Kollmorgen, survived the 1942 New Britain campaign.