Wrist watch presented by US Major General J M 'Skinny' Wainwright IV : Gunner Cecil Neathway Beatton, Royal Australian Artillery Headquarters

Rolled gold wrist watch with rectangular watch case and adjustable semented band. The copper-coloured rectangular face has Roman Numerals and a rectangular subdial to count seconds where the number VI would be. Below the XII is written, 'Tissot NON MAGNETIC'. There is a knurled winding crown located on the exterior of the case at the III positon. Engraved on the reverse is, 'C N Beatton'. The segmented band has a clasp on which is stamped, 'MADE IN ENGLAND [illegible] ROLLED GOLD'.

Wrist watch presented to NX27659 Gunner Cecil Neathway Beatton, Royal Australian Artillery HQ by US Major General Jonathan Mayhew 'Skinny' Wainwright IV.

Born in January 1903 at Ryde, NSW Cecil Neathway Beatton was working as a butcher when he enlisted in the AIF in June 1940. Gunner C N Beatton was allocated to the Artillery and served with the 8th Division in Malaya. He was batman to Major General Cecil Arthur Callaghan, the Commanding Officer of the 8th Division Artillery. After the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942 and the evacuation of the divisional commander Major General H G Bennett, Callaghan became Officer Commanding the 8th Division on Singapore.

Beatton accompanied Callaghan, as his batman, when he and other senior officers were moved to prison camps on Formosa (Taiwan) where the highest ranking British, American, Australian and Dutch military officers from Singapore, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies were concentrated.

Also interned on Formosa was US Major General Jonathan Mayhew "Skinny" Wainwright IV who had been the Commanding Officer of the US forces in the Phillipines. Wainwright presented this wrist watch to Gunner Beatton in recognition of his (Beatton's) service in the camps on Formosa. Interned in Changi on Singapore, and at the Karenko, Tamazto and Shirakawa Camps on Formosa, Beatton endured three and a half years as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese. He received his discharge from the Army in January 1946.