Group portrait of No. 1 Company, Southern Command Signal Training Depot at Caulfield Racecourse, ...

Group portrait of No. 1 Company, Southern Command Signal Training Depot at Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne. Identified back row, 7th from right, (over the right shoulder of the serviceman with mustache in light tunic), is WX7498 Corporal (Cpl) Christopher Schurmann, 8th Division Signals, of Claremont, WA. Cpl Schurmann enlisted on 6 August 1940. He survived captivity as a Prisoner of War in Thailand, including the Thai-Burma railway and was discharged on 25 January, 1946. Identified, second row from front, 3rd from left is VX45954 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) George Noel Chitty, 8th Divisional Signals. A traveller with C Chitty and Co, timber merchants, he enlisted from East Malvern in July 1940 and served in Malaya prior to being taken prisoner of war by the Japanese. He died of illness on 21 September 1943 in Malaya. Also identified in the second row, 8th front right with his arms crossed is VX63472 Signalman (Sig) Charles Henry King, 8th Division Signals. Sig King was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1494 POWs that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942. Signalman King, aged 41, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 18 July 1945. Soon after the photograph was taken, Cpl Schurmann wrote on the verso "This photo, Mums (sic), taken on the Company parade ground shows your "rising son" looking very splendid in the back row. Love Chris"

The other men in this image remain unidentified, however it is highly likely that many were captured by the Japanese during the fighting for Singapore in February 1942, and died in captivity.