The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (WX11731) Private Trevor Lloyd Ainsworth, No. 1 Company, Australian Army Service Corps, 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 Neil Downey, the story for this day was on (WX11731) Private Trevor Lloyd Ainsworth, No. 1 Company, Australian Army Service Corps, Second World War.

WX11731 Private Trevor Lloyd Ainsworth, No. 1 Company, Australian Army Service Corps
DOI 9 June 1945

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Trevor Lloyd Ainsworth.

Trevor Ainsworth was born on 28 February 1921 in Katanning, Western Australia, to Frank and Gladys Ainsworth. His father had served with the light horse on Gallipoli and in France during the First World War, before being evacuated to Australia in August 1918 with illness. He married Gladys, a school teacher, upon his return.

Trevor, together with his sister, Pat, and brother, Rodney, was brought up on his parent’s farm at Boscabel. He attended Boscabel State School, where he was remembered as having “a bright and happy nature”. The family was well liked in the community, and was fondly farewelled when they moved to North Cottesloe in 1932.
After leaving school Ainsworth worked for paper merchants Gordon and Gotch as a packer. He joined the Militia on 14 October 1940, at the age of 18, and served as a trooper with the 25th Light Horse Regiment.

On 16 April 1941 Ainsworth enlisted with the Second Australian Imperial Force. Initially posted to the Armoured Division, he went into training and joined reinforcements to the 4th Reserve Motor Transport Company. He arrived on 24 January 1942. The 8th Division was already engaged in fierce fighting, defending Malaya from the Japanese invasion.

On 14 February 1942 Commonwealth forces in Malaya were forced to surrender, and Private Ainsworth was among the 45,000 British and Australian troops who became prisoners of war.

He was initially held 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, Ainsworth volunteered with B Force, which left for Borneo in July 1942. The men had been assured of better food and conditions, but the almost 1,500 members of B Force found themselves on a hellish sea journey, crammed into the cargo holds of the Ubi Maru 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. By January 1945 the prisoners were fending for themselves.

The completed airfield was soon destroyed by Allied aircraft bombing, and between January and March 1945 some 450 of the fittest prisoners were ordered to march west to Ranau, around 260 kilometres away. In May a second wave of marches was ordered, and 536 prisoners set out. These men were in much worse condition than those in the first march, and only 183 made it to Ranau. Those who fell on the track were left to die or were killed by the guards. One of those who died was Private Trevor Ainsworth. Records state that he died on 9 June 1945, his cause of death given as malaria.

Ainsworth was dearly missed by his family, friends, and former employers, who placed in memoriam notices in the newspapers for years after he died. One was inserted alongside the couplet “His smiling face and happy ways will linger with us all our days.” Another read simply, “Vale, Trev.”

Ainsworth’s uncle, Corporal William Paterson, also served during the war, and died while a prisoner of war in Thailand.

Private Trevor Lloyd Ainsworth is commemorated at the Labuan Memorial in Malaysia, and his name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from 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 Trevor Ainsworth, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section