Studio portrait of QX14323 Gunner (GNR)James Michael Whalley, 2/10 Field Regiment. Gunner ...

Studio portrait of QX14323 Gunner (GNR)James Michael Whalley, 2/10 Field Regiment. Gunner Whalley enlised on 8 July 1940 at Coomera, QLD and became a prisoner (POW) of the Japanese on the 15 Feburary 1942. Initially imprisoned in the Changi prisoner of war camp, it was not long before members of the 2/10th were allocated to external work parties. The first parties were dispatched around Singapore and southern Malaya, but later 2/10th members found themselves bound for the camps along the Thailand-Burma Railway and to Borneo. Other prisoners were sent to Japan and Sumatra. Of the 834 officers and men of the regiment who became prisoners, 270 died. The surviving prisoners were liberated in late August 1945 and began returning to Australia almost immediately. Gunner Whalley survived the war and was discharged on 12 Feburary 1946.