Qld. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of QX10150 Gunner John Ernest Sutton, 2/10th Field ...

Qld. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of QX10150 Gunner John Ernest Sutton, 2/10th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery. 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. Gunner Sutton, aged 28, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 23 March 1945. He was the son of Ernest Walwin Sutton and Emily Anne Sutton, and the husband of Ethel May Sutton, of Texas, Qld. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 3. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)