NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX24743 Private Lawrence Arthur McLeenan, 2/18th ...

NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX24743 Private Lawrence Arthur McLeenan, 2/18th Battalion, Australian Infantry. 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 POW's 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. Private McLeenan, aged 21, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 13 February 1945. He was the son of William Lawrence and Bertha Henrietta Brown; stepson of Francis James McLeenan, of Crows Nest, NSW. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 11. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)