Studio portrait of NX47935 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Kevin Victor Geyer, No. 1 Independent Company, ...

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Accession Number P09511.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Colour - Toned black & white print
Maker Unknown
Date made 1940
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Studio portrait of NX47935 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Kevin Victor Geyer, No. 1 Independent Company, of Tenterfield, NSW. L Cpl Geyer enlisted and served on the island of New Ireland. He was taken prisoner of war (POW) following the Japanese invasion of January 1942 and held at Rabaul, New Britain. On 22 June 1942 L Cpl Geyer 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 the No. 1 Independent Company, 2/22 Battalion 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.