Studio portrait of VX48415 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Robert Edward (Bob) Ross, 2/22 Battalion, of ...

Studio portrait of VX48415 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Robert Edward (Bob) Ross, 2/22 Battalion, of Shepparton, Victoria. The son of Sarah Isabell Ross and David James Ross, a Boer War veteran, Robert Ross was employed as a motor mechanic at Guyatt's Garage, Shepparton before enlisting on 26 July 1940 and serving on New Britain. Following the Japanese invasion of January 1942, he was taken prisoner of war (POW) and held at Rabaul. On 22 June 1942 L Cpl Ross, aged 26, was reported as 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. Conjecture remains amongst his family as to whether he was aboard the ship, for after the war a member of 2/22 Battalion informed LCpl Ross' elder brother that Ross was badly injured during the Japanese shelling of Rabaul and that "Bob was left behind in the jungle with his rifle and ammo and told to do his worst, but don't tell your mum that".