Portrait of NX39942 Private (Pte) Sydney Brent, 2/30 Battalion of Wellington, NSW. Pte Brent died ...

Portrait of NX39942 Private (Pte) Sydney Brent, 2/30 Battalion of Wellington, NSW. Pte Brent died of illness on 20 December 1943, aged 22 years. He was one of approximately 13,000 prisoners of war who died and were buried along the notorious Burma- Siam railway built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war. The railway was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma . The Japanese aimed at completing the railway in 14 months and work began in October 1942. The line, 424 kilometres long, was completed by December 1943. The graves of those who died during the construction and maintenance of the Burma-Siam railway (except for the Americans) were transferred from camp burial grounds and isolated sites along the railway into three cemeteries at Chungkai and Kanchanaburi in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar. Pte Brent is buried at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery.