NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX68904 Driver Leo McCarthy, 2/3rd Motor ...

Accession Number P02467.857
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Film copy negative
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX68904 Driver Leo McCarthy, 2/3rd Motor Ambulance Company, Australian Army Service Corps. 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 B Force. The 1494 POW's that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942. Driver McCarthy, aged 44, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 2 March 1945. He was the son of John Weeks McCarthy and Florence McCarthy, and the husband of Adelina McCarthy, of Five Dock, NSW. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 22. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)