NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX613 Signalman Charles William Wilson, 8th ...

NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX613 Signalman Charles William Wilson, 8th Division Signals, Australian Corps of Signals. He was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of E Force. The 500 Australian and 500 British POWs who made up E Force, left Changi on 28 March 1943, on board the S.S. DeKlerk arriving at Berhala Island (adjacent to Sandakan Harbour) on 15 April 1943. The POWs were held there until 5 June, when they were taken by barge to Sandakan. The next day they were transferred to the 8 Mile Camp, which was about half a mile from the B Force compound. Signalman Wilson, aged 43, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 1 February 1945. He was the son of Charles William and Ada Wilson, and the husband of Dulcie Eileen Wilson, of Boorowa, NSW. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 8. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)