Places | |
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Accession Number | AWM2020.1.1.185 |
Collection type | Film |
Object type | Last Post film |
Physical description | 16:9 |
Maker |
Australian War Memorial |
Place made | Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell |
Date made | 3 July 2020 |
Access | Open |
Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial![]() |
Copying Provisions | Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction. |
The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (VX61666) Private Alan William Dalton, 2/10 Ordnance Workshop, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (VX61666) Private Alan William Dalton, 2/10 Ordnance Workshop, Second World War.
Film order formVX61666 Private Alan William Dalton, 2/10 Ordnance Workshop
Illness 23 April 1944
Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Alan William Dalton.
Alan Dalton was born in Geelong, Victoria, on 31 August 1912, one of eight children born to Flora and Alexander Dalton.
Known as “Joe” to his family and friends, he joined all the males of the Dalton family in working in the wool industry. He eventually became a wool classer operating across rural Victoria.
Dalton was very fit and athletic, and was passionately involved in professional foot running. He won a number of events and ran fourth place in the prestigious Stawell Easter Gift of 1938.
When war broke out, Dalton was working for the Wool Appraisal Board, which was a protected industry. However, two of his brothers enlisted early in the conflict and he was keen to join them. He was newly married: his wife Irene had recently given birth to a daughter, Jacqueline, and tried to dissuade him from joining up. Nevertheless, on 13 August 1941, a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday, Alan Dalton enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force.
In October he was allotted to the Australian Army Service Corps, which procured, stored, and distributed stores such as food and petrol, as well as being the army’s truckies, whose vehicles carried troops.
On 1 January 1942, Dalton was posted to the 2/10th Ordnance Workshop, which was responsible for working behind the scenes on the supply and repair of technical equipment.
A little over a week later, Dalton left Sydney aboard the troopship Aquitania, arriving in Singapore on 26 January. By then, the Japanese invasion of the region was well under way. Japanese forces had steadily driven forces defending the Malay peninsula south in a relentless but short campaign. By 31 January Allied forces were bottled up on Singapore Island at the peninsula's southern tip.
In the week of heavy fighting which followed, the defenders were unable to stem the Japanese advance. On 8 February, the Japanese landed on the north-west of the island. Within six days they were on the outskirts of Singapore city, which was also now under constant air attack.
On 15 February 1942, Singapore was surrendered and the order was given for troops to lay down their arms and cease resistance.
Those captured in Singapore were moved into Changi jail, but for most, this was just a transit stop, as working parties were soon despatched to Thailand and Burma.
Dalton joined one of the later labour forces to leave Changi: F Force. Many of the 3,662 Australians and 3,400 British were unwell even before they left Singapore.
Their hardships continued when they were sent to Thailand by train, packed into suffocating metal railway trucks with little food and water. When they reached Ban Pong in Thailand, F Force was made to march over 300 kilometres to camps near the border with Burma.
The bulk of F Force arrived utterly exhausted in mid-May and were put to work in remote camps working on the Burma–Thailand Railway. Malnourished, overworked, and ravaged by diseases, F Force suffered one of the highest death rates on the railway: almost a third of the Australians and two-thirds of the British prisoners would die.
After the railway was completed on 16 October 1943, most surviving prisoners were returned to Changi, where conditions began to deteriorate.
Alan Dalton had survived the hardships of the Burma–Thailand Railway and the inhuman conditions of the work camps of F Force, but he returned physically exhausted. He was taken into hospital at Changi, where he died on 23 April 1944.
He was 31 years old.
Today his remains lie buried in Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore, alongside almost 4,500 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War.
His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.
This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Alan William Dalton, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.
Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section
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Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (VX61666) Private Alan William Dalton, 2/10 Ordnance Workshop, Second World War. (video)