Studio portrait of NX54534 Private (Pte) Colin Cyril 'Matey' Asgill, 2/30th Battalion, of Parkes, ...

Studio portrait of NX54534 Private (Pte) Colin Cyril 'Matey' Asgill, 2/30th Battalion, of Parkes, NSW. He was one of a family of eight siblings who served in military and civilian war work. He was one of six brothers who served during the Second World War, and two sisters, one of whom joined the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) and the other worked in a wireless factory for the services. He joined the 54th Battalion with his brother Tony in 1939 and they were in camp in Bathurst, NSW, when the war broke out in October 1939. At the time he was too young to enlist for overseas service, but later obtained his father's permission to enlist on 25 June 1940, as well as to marry. 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 POWs 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. Pte Asgill, aged 25, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 17 July 1945. He was the son of Ernest and Mary Asgill, and the husband of Pearl Mary Asgill, of Parkes, NSW. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 17