Drene Walton Chenhall was born on 9 October 1919 at Malvern, Victoria to parents Wilfred Joseph and Sylvia Constance Chenhall. Drene worked as a clerk.
He enlisted for the Second Australian Imperial Force at Queenscliff, Victoria on 3 July 1940, and was assigned the service number VX129400. Chenhall was initially taken on strength to the 34 Fortress Company of the Royal Australian Engineers as a sapper, and was attached to 2/22 Australian Infantry Battalion, Lark Force on 13 March 1941. One month later, Sapper Chenhall embarked for overseas service from Sydney, and disembarked at Rabaul, New Guinea, in 26 April 1941. Lark Force was tasked with defending the harbours and airfields of New Britain from the Japanese, and Chenhall did his part by working as an instrument operator.
In January 1942, the Japanese overwhelmed the Australians at New Britain, capturing Rabaul and taking many members of Lark Force as prisoners of war, including Sapper Chenhall.
Drene Walton Chenhall embarked on the Japanese transport ship ‘Montevideo Maru’ on 22 June 1942 and was bound for Hainan Island, alongside 1053 other prisoners of war. On 1 July 1942, while the ship travelling across the South China Sea, the American submarine “Sturgeon” fired four torpedoes into the ship, causing it to sink. None of the prisoners survived.Sapper Drene Walton Chenhall is remembered on Panel 9, at the Rabaul War Cemetery and Memorial, Kokopo, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.