NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX51975 Private Herbert Victor Johnson, ...

NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX51975 Private Herbert Victor Johnson, Australian Army Ordnance Corps attached to 2/20th 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 POW's 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 Johnson, aged 31, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 29 June 1945. He was the son of Herbert Victor and Mary Helen Johnson, and the husband of Jeanie Johnson, of Mile End, SA. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 14. (Photograph supplied by the Army's Soldier Career Management Agency. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)