The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX38584) Gunner Wally Gardner Crease, 2/15th Field Regiment, Second Australian Imperial Force, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Meleah Hampton, the story for this day was on (NX38584) Gunner Wally Gardner Crease, 2/15th Field Regiment, Second Australian Imperial Force, Second World War.

NX38584 Gunner Wally Gardner Crease, 2/15th Field Regiment, Second Australian Imperial Force
Executed 14 March 1945

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Walter Gardner Crease.

Walter Gardner was born on 17 September 1919 in Cairns, Queensland, to Cyril and Winifred Gardner. His father was a cane farmer, and he had three brothers: Allan, Leslie, and Charles.

Known as “Wally”, Gardner was working as a labourer when he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 20 January 1941. Several months later he was discharged as medically unfit, with lumbar pain, so he travelled to Sydney, where he enlisted again, this time under the name “Wally Crease”, on 12 July. He gave his birthplace as “Victoria”, and declined to give the names of family or friends to act as next of kin. Posted to the 1st Field Training Regiment, he spent some months training in Cowra.

Crease embarked from Sydney on 10 January 1942, arriving in Singapore two weeks later. Following Japan’s entry into the war, the units of the 8th Division were involved in fierce fighting on the Malayan peninsula. The 2/15th Field Regiment, to which Crease was transferred, was in almost constant action, providing artillery support as the infantry withdrew towards Singapore. On 14 February 1942 Commonwealth forces in Malaya were forced to surrender, and Gunner Crease was among the 45,000 British and Australian troops who became prisoners of war.

He was initially held at Changi prisoner-of-war camp, but the Japanese soon called for working parties to build and expand new infrastructure across their empire. In July, Crease volunteered with B Force, which left for Borneo in July 1942. Assured of better food and conditions, the almost 1,500 members of B Force found themselves instead on a hellish sea journey, crammed into the cargo holds of the Ubi Maru for 11 days before arriving at Sandakan.

Conditions at Sandakan soon devolved into some of the worst experienced by prisoners of the Japanese. Prisoners, including the sick, were forced at gunpoint to work on the construction of a military airstrip, and were often beaten by their captors. Illness and death ravaged the camp, and food was scarce.

The completed airfield was soon bombed by Allied aircraft, and between January and March 1945 those prisoners who could be made to walk were forced into a series of marches west to Ranau – a distance of around 260 kilometres. Crease was among the 455 fittest prisoners forced into undertaking the first march.

The journey was horrendous. Japanese guards refused to let the prisoners rest, and those too sick or weak to continue were left behind to die or executed by the guards. Murray placed himself at the rear to help those who fell behind and support those who were struggling. Just 309 men made it to Ranau, including Gunner Wally Crease.

The Ranau camp provided no shelter, and with little to no food the rate of deaths among prisoners rose daily. Crease secretly questioned a local, who told him of a possible escape route. On 1 March he and his friend Gunner Albert Cleary managed to escape. They remained free for almost two weeks before Cleary and then Crease were captured. They were brutally beaten by the guards for more than 12 hours, but the following day, 14 March, Crease made a mad dash for the jungle. He managed to disappear for a while but was soon captured and executed by the guards. The Japanese gave his cause of death as malaria. He was 24 years old.

After the war a recovery team was able to identify Crease’s remains, and he was buried at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia, under the inscription, “A son, brother, and uncle sacrificed for peace; lives on in our hearts.”

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from the Second World War.
This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Gunner Wally Gardner Crease, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section