The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (WX12884) Private Thomas Henry Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF, (WX7997) Private Herbert Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF, (WX9274) Private Gordon Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (WX12884) Private Thomas Henry Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF, (WX7997) Private Herbert Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF, (WX9274) Private Gordon Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF, Second World War.

WX12884 Private Thomas Henry Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF
DOD 11 March 1945
Photograph: P02468.763

WX7997 Private Herbert Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF
DOD 11 February 1945
Photograph: P02468.685

WX9274 Private Gordon Dorizzi, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF
DOD 11 February 1945
Photograph: P02468.731

Story delivered 26 November 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Henry Dorizzi, Private Herbert Dorizzi, and Private Gordon Dorizzi.

Thomas, born on 24 February 1914, Gordon, born on 30 May 1916, and Herbert, born on 29 April 1918, were all born to Thomas Joseph and Mary Ann Dorizzi in Perth.

In 1929 the family rented out the Newcastle Gaol in Toodyay as a private home. While their parents slept in the front rooms, Thomas, Gordon, Herbert, and two other brothers each had one of the cells for a bedroom. The family owned and ran a wood yard, and later a cartage and contracting business called T. Dorizzi and Sons, for which the brothers all worked. Thomas ran the family business for a time, and married Harriet Smith, known as “Nellie”. The two of them had a daughter, Geraldine, whom they referred to as “Tiddles”.

The Dorizzi boys were popular in the community and active in the local football and swimming clubs and the fire brigade. They enjoyed dog racing and engaged in hunting and fishing.

Though the brothers enlisted in the AIF on different dates – Herbert on 13 August 1940, Gordon on 30 October 1940, and Thomas on 14 May 1941 – they were all posted to the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, raised as one of the support units to the 8th Division already serving in Singapore. They spent some time training in Australia before embarking for Singapore at the end of 1941.

The 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion was quickly put to work defending Singapore from the invading Japanese force. It lost almost a third of its strength in the fighting. On 15 February the Australians surrendered to the Japanese forces, and the Dorizzi brothers were among the thousands who became prisoners of war.

The brothers were initially held with the rest of their battalion at Changi prisoner-of-war camp, but the Japanese soon called for working parties to build and expand new infrastructure across their empire. In July the brothers volunteered to join “B Force”, assured of better food and conditions, but found themselves on a hellish sea journey to Borneo, crammed into cargo holds for 11 days before arriving at Sandakan.

Conditions at Sandakan soon devolved into some of the worst experienced by prisoners of the Japanese. Prisoners, including the sick, were forced at gunpoint to work on the construction of a military airstrip, and were often beaten by their captors. Illness and death ravaged the camp and food was scarce, and by January 1945 the prisoners were fending for themselves.

The completed airfield was soon destroyed by Allied aircraft bombing, and on 28 January 1945, 455 of the fittest prisoners were ordered to march west to Ranau – a distance of around 260 kilometres. All were suffering from malnutrition, some from disease. Herbert and Thomas left on the first march, but Gordon was deemed too sick to join them, and remained behind.

The march was horrendous. The guards refused to let the prisoners rest, and those too sick or weak to continue were left behind to die. Among these was Herbert Dorizzi, who died of beriberi on 11 February. Back in Sandakan, Gordon Dorizzi died of disease that same day.

Thomas endured the rest of the march, during which many died from disease, starvation, or at the hands of the guards, who regularly clubbed or shot to death those unable to walk. He made it to Ranau, but died from beriberi on 11 March 1945, a month after his brothers.

The names of Thomas, Herbert, and Gordon Dorizzi are commemorated on the memorial at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia. Back home in Toodyay an article in the local paper expressed “overwhelming sorrow and sympathy” for the Dorizzi family:

the untimely ending of their young lives will remain in saddened memories as a reminder that war holds no glamour for the men who go into the fighting line

In 1997 the Dorizzi Memorial Cell was set up in the Old Newcastle Gaol Museum, where the brothers had lived as boys.

Their names are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from the Second World War. Their photographs are displayed by the Pool of Reflection. From left to right are Gordon, Herbert, and Thomas.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Thomas Henry Dorizzi, Private Herbert Dorizzi, and Private Gordon Dorizzi, who gave their lives for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section