Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX62668 Private Thomas Dawson, 2/10th Ordnance ...

Accession Number P02468.591
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

Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX62668 Private Thomas Dawson, 2/10th Ordnance Field Park, . 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. Private Dawson, aged 39, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 29 April 1945. He was the son of Walter Thomas Horax Dawson and Emma Dawson, and the husband of Mary Hannah Dawson, of West Brunswick, Vic. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 30. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)