NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX31046 Lance Corporal Harold Arthur Downey, ...

NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX31046 Lance Corporal Harold Arthur Downey, 74th Light Aid Detachment, 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 E Force. The 500 Australian and 500 British POW's who made up E Force, left Changi on 28 March 1943, on board the S.S. DeKlerk arriving at Berhala Island (adjacent to Sandakan Harbour) on 15 April 1943. The POW's were held there until 5 June, when they were taken by barge to Sandakan. The next day they were transferred to the 8 Mile Camp, which was about half a mile from the B Force compound. Lance Corporal Downey, aged 37, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 8 February 1945. He was the son of Arthur James Downey and Maude Louise Downey, and the husband of Sylvia Maude Frances Downey, of Marrickville, NSW. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 29. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)