The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX57723) Lance Corporal Leo Stanley Thomas Cleary, 8th Division Signals, 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 , the story for this day was on (NX57723) Lance Corporal Leo Stanley Thomas Cleary, 8th Division Signals, Second World War.

NX57723 Lance Corporal Leo Stanley Thomas Cleary, 8th Division Signals
Illness 5 November 1943

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Leo Stanley Thomas Cleary.

Leo Cleary was born on 20 June 1916 in Armidale, New South Wales, the son of Stanley Joseph and Violet May Cleary.

Leo was the eldest of six children in the family. He and his siblings Ivy, Rita, Irene, John and Marie grew up in Armidale. Leo attended St Mary's Primary School and De La Salle College, before going on to study at Armidale Teachers’ College.

Leo Cleary went on to become a teacher, and while teaching in a small community met his future wife, Agnes, playing tennis.

He also spent a year in the Militia, parading part time as a corporal in the 33rd Battalion.

Leo Cleary enrolled in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 4 June 1940. Initially detached to a signals unit ¬– responsible for installing, maintaining, and operating communications equipment – he was later transferred to the 8th Division Signals.

Towards the end of the year, on 28 December, Cleary was found absent without leave. He received a fine and was confined to barracks for a week for this infraction of military discipline.

In the new year, Leo married his sweetheart Agnes before being detached to join the 2/15th Field Regiment in February.

Part of the 8th Division, the 2/15th was an artillery regiment. Raised in November 1940, the regiment had been training at Ingleburn with 18-pounder guns, the type used during the First World War, many of which, as noted in the regiment's history, were “older than the gunners”.

By the time Cleary was attached to the regiment, however, it had moved into a new camp in Sydney.

Cleary continued to bristle against military discipline, and in May was formally admonished for disobeying a lawful command.

With growing unease about Japan and the rest of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force sent to the Middle East, the 8th Division – of which Cleary’s unit was part – was sent Malaya, Singapore, and the islands to Australia's north.

Cleary arrived in Singapore in mid-August 1941. In October he was appointed lance corporal.

The 2/15th went into camp at Nee Soon in Singapore, where the men trained and familiarised themselves with the jungle, and in late November the regiment received its first 25-pounders.

Throughout November and the start of December it seemed that war with Japan was increasingly likely. Late in the afternoon of 5 December the 2/15th began moving from Singapore to the state of Johore, Malaya, to relieve the 2/10th Field Regiment, which was operating on the east coast of Malaya in support of the 22nd Brigade. The 2/15th was headquartered and took up position at Kluang Rubber Estate.

On Christmas Day, back home in Australia Agnes Cleary gave birth to a daughter. While Leo would learn of her birth, he would never see her, or learn her name.

By the start of January 1942 the Japanese had advanced through Thailand and most of Malaya. The 2/15th left Kluang and moved north to reinforce the Allied troops that would fight the main Japanese force when it reached Johore. The regiment’s batteries went to Muar on the west coast; also further north to join the 27th Brigade, to Paya Lang Estate under the command of the 2/29th Battalion; and near Gemas under the command of the 2/30th Battalion.

Soon after moving into position, the regiment's gunners were in almost constant action, providing artillery support for the infantry withdrawal along the Malayan Peninsula towards Singapore. In the first days of the campaign, the regiment fired 7,950 rounds in the Gemas—Segamat sector alone. By the end of the month, the last of the Allied troops had crossed the causeway and reached Singapore. Among some of the last to cross were troops from the 2/15th who formed the last Allied artillery units in action on the peninsula.

Having crossed the causeway, which was subsequently blown, the regiment was deployed to the western area in support of the 22nd Brigade.

Preceded by a heavy bombardment, the Japanese attack on Singapore began at 10.30 pm on 8 February, when two Japanese divisions crossed the Johore Strait. The 2/15th inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers and sank some barges; but with communications cut, heavily outnumbered, and the Japanese infiltrating between positions, the regiment withdrew towards Singapore, providing artillery support when needed.

By 13 February the battle for Singapore Island was all but over and two days later British forces surrendered. The regiment began moving from Tanglin Golf Course to Selerang Barracks, Changi, and into Japanese capture.

Initially imprisoned in the sprawling Changi prisoner-of-war camp, it was not long before prisoners were allocated to external work parties.

Cleary was among those who joined C Force, which left Singapore on 28 November 1942. Ten men perished during the voyage aboard the “hellship” Kamakura Maru.

On reaching Japan, C Force was split. A group of about 250 was sent to Kobe Kawasaki camp, while Cleary was among some 300 prisoners who found themselves in No. 4 Branch Tokyo Camp located at Naoetsu in the salt warehouse of the Shin-etsu Chemical Co.

In March 1943, the prisoners were moved to new temporary quarters in the nearby village of Arita. In October, the camp was moved to a two-storey warehouse of galvanized iron. About 60 of the men would perish there, including Leo Cleary, who died on 5 November 1943.

While Cleary’s cause of death was recorded as amoebic dysentery, camp guards were later charged with “beating, kicking and otherwise abusing him whilst he was sick and receiving treatment in hospital, thereby contributing to his death.”

Despite this, in the two letters that managed to reach his wife at home in Australia, he assured her that he was in excellent health.

Leo Cleary was 27 years old.

Today, his remains lie in Yokohama War Cemetery.

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 Lance Corporal Leo Stanley Thomas Cleary, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section