Portrait of Frank Alexander Irvine

Framed studio portrait of QX10308 Private (Pte) Frank Alexander Irvine, 1st Independent Company. Pte Alexander was lost at sea when the Montevideo Maru was sunk on 1 July 1942. On 22 June 1942 an estimated 845 POWs and 209 civilians captured by Japanese forces embarked from Rabaul, New Britain, 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.