Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX66152 Private John Francis Rodriquez, 2/10th ...

Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX66152 Private John Francis Rodriquez, 2/10th Ordnance Workshop, Australian Corps of Electrical & Mechanical Engineers. 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 Rodriquez, aged 34, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 4 February 1945. He was the son of Gioviano and Giovannie Rodriquez, and the husband of Berie Elanda Rodriquez, of Black Rock, 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.)