MicGlinn was wounded in action at Hill 200, Ulu Pandan on 11/2/1942, admitted to 2/13th Australian General Hospital with a shrapnel wound to his left foot. Discharged to unit on 26/2/1942.

 

 

We believe one of the men in the above photo may be another Bunbury boy, Stan Wenn who went to Japan with ‘J’ Force.

 

Frank was residing/working Nungarin when he enlisted.

Please read further.

 

Read the Diary of Frank McGlinn WX8478 at wars end

And his story with Peter Winstanley

Frank wrote of Niihama, Japan.

After the end of war, Frank returned home to learn his widowed mother had been murdered in 1943.  She had been sexually assaulted and killed by a man she did not know as she walked through a suburban park during the day.    It would have been a devastating blow at the time for Frank’s sisters and the McGlinn family;  and to return home having survived years of being POW of Japan, the death of his mother would have been shocking news for Frank.

He initially lived in Bunbury with one of his sisters and it was here he wrote his memoirs.  Frank McGlinn was residing in Bunbury when he died in an accident  22 November 1948, he was 39 years old.  

When he began working in Bunbury it appears Frank took a strong interest in the worker’s conditions and became proactive.

 

With ‘D’ Force S Battalion Frank left Singapore by train about 14 May 1943 for Thailand.  It was a terrible 4-5 day trip in crowded conditions to Banpong.  He would remain working on Thai-Burma Railway until he was selected to be fit to work in Japan in 1944.

He was at Konyu II, Konyu I River Camp, Tarsau, Chungkai and Tamuang camps.

The following dates and camps for Frank.

26-2-1942 to 5-5-42 Changi

5-5-42 to 20-11-42 Caldecott Estate (Thompson Road)

20-11-42 to 23-12-42 River Valley Road Camp

23-12-42 to 14-3-1943 Changi – left by train from Singapore to Thailand

18-3-1943 Arrived Kanchanaburi, Thailand

27 -3-1943 Arrived Tarsao Camp (Japanese HQ Camp for ‘D’ Force)  left 24 -4-1943

25-4-1943 arrived Konyu II Camp (Hellfire Cutting)

10-7-1943 left for Konyu I

19]-7-1943 arrived Tarsau

21-8-1943 to 23-5-1944 Chungkai (worked with burial party)

23-5-44 to 22-6-1944 Tamuang – selected for Japan

27-6-1944 to 1-7-1944 Sent back to Singapore, accommodated River Valley River Transit Camp to await ‘Byoki’ Maru.

4/7/1944 Departed Singapore for Japan.

10-9-1944 to 18-05-1945 arrived to work Yamanii Camp, Japan

18-5-1945 to 13-9-1945 Niihama Camp, Japan

Please read further about ‘D’ Force Thailand, S Battalion.

Frank was fortunate not to have encountered any serious injuries or illnesses by the time he departed Singapore on ‘Rashin Maru’ for Moji Japan.  The ‘Rashin Maru’ journey took a horrific 70 days to reach Japan – surviving an American torpedo attack, typhoon and an American submarine blockade at Manila.

Please read about ‘Rashin’ Maru

In Japan he worked at Yamane and Niihama mines and returned home to his family to learn his widowed mother had been murdered in 1943.

Frank never returned to farming.

He had barely got back on his feet, was again working at Bunbury and tragically died in an accident aged 39 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

please read about 2/4th men injured or who lost their lives in workplace accidents

Frank’s parents married in York in 1906.  His mother ‘Ellen’ Wilkie was born in Nhill, Victoria in 1890.  She was 52 when she died.    His father Thomas McGlinn was born in York 1906  and died Perth 1932.  Frank was their only son and second child.  He had three sisters.  Older sister Jean died in November 1949 in Bunbury.

Franks’ paternal grandmother Sarah Ashworth m. 1880 York to David Patrick McGlinn who died in 1905.  Sarah McGlinn (nee Ashworth) remarried 1910 to Arthur Ernest Slocombe.

Frank’s grandmother Sarah Slocombe died in 1933.

 

Frank’s father Thomas McGlinn Service No. 954 served as  Farrier, 4th Mobile Veterninary Section. He departed Melbourne ‘Orsova’ 12 Nov 1915 having enlisted 24 Sept 1915.   He seemed to be ill much of his time and was returned to WA in mid 1917 due to bronchitis.  Above are his death notices in 1932.

 

Prior to enlisting Frank was recorded in the Electoral Rolls from 1936  and Directories up to 1941 as farming at Nungarin.  He was 31 years old when he enlisted.

Frank’s father Thomas McGlinn,  is older brother to James Edmund McGlinn whose son Donald is first cousin to Frank.

Donald ‘Don’ McGlinn WX11580  of 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion died in 1943 at Tarsau.

Younger brother to Thomas and James Edmund McGlinn was Ernst William McGlinn known as ‘Ern’ of 11th Battalion died Egypt 1916 of wounds he received at Gallipoli.  Please read further