The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX6940) Private Alan Barney Percy, Headquarters AIF Malaya, 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 (NX6940) Private Alan Barney Percy, Headquarters AIF Malaya, Second World War.

NX6940 Private Alan Barney Percy, Headquarters AIF Malaya
Illness 20 December 1943
Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Alan Barney Percy.
Alan Percy was born on 29 November 1919 in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville, the son of William and Eva Percy. He grew up in Sydney, and went on to work as a storeman.

On 22 April 1941, the 21-year-old enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force. He joined the 8th Division in May, and would eventually work as part of headquarters staff.

Private Percy was sick in June, and then spent some time at a convalescent depot, but returned to duty in July. Towards the end of the month, he embarked from Sydney, bound for overseas service.

The intention had been to deploy the 8th Division to the Middle East to join the other Australian forces. But as war with Japan loomed, the division was divided into four separate forces, which were deployed in different parts of the Asia–Pacific region.

Private Percy arrived in Singapore in August, and then continued on to Johore. He suffered from a laceration to his leg in late November 1941, but returned to duty soon afterwards.

As war broke out in the Pacific, Japanese forces quickly overran Thailand and invaded Malaya. In mid-January, parts of the division went into action south of Kuala Lumpur, at Gemas and Muar. The 2/30th Battalion carried out a large ambush at Gemencheh River Bridge which destroyed a Japanese battalion. The 2/29th and the 2/19th Battalions reinforced the 45th Indian Infantry Brigade near the Muar River. The 22nd Brigade fought a series of delaying actions while withdrawing to Singapore.

The attack on Singapore began at 10.30 pm on 8 February, when two Japanese divisions crossed the Johore Strait to the island. By 13 of February the battle for Singapore was all but over and on 15 February, British forces surrendered.

Most of the Australians captured were moved to Changi, where they occupied Selarang Barracks. For many, this was just a transit stop, as working parties were soon dispatched to work camps.

Percy was allocated to F Force, one of the last labour forces to leave in mid-April of 1943. The force consisted of 3,662 Australians and 3,400 British.

F Force’s hardships began when they were sent to Thailand by train. Packed into suffocating metal railway trucks with little food or water. When they reached Ban Pong in Thailand, the prisoners were marched over 300 kilometres to half a dozen camps towards the Burma border.

To avoid the heat, which was at its most intense in April, the prisoners marched at night, for as much as 12 to 15 hours. When the monsoonal rains began in May, paths became impossibly slippery and treacherous. Many of the men collapsed and had to drop out.

The bulk of F Force arrived utterly exhausted in mid-May at remote and primitive camps. There, acute supply problems aggravated widespread outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, malaria, beri beri, and diarrhoea.

Many of the men were unwell even before they had set out. Isolated in up-country Thailand, remote from food and medical supplies, and drenched by monsoonal rains, a third of the Australians and almost two-thirds of the British prisoners died.

Alan Percy is recorded as having died of dysentery on 20 December 1943.

The graves of those who died were later transferred from camp burial grounds and isolated sites into cemeteries in Thailand and Burma.

Today Percy’s body lies at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Thailand, under the words, “greater love hath no man.”

He was 23 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 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 Barney Percy, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section