The Soldier's Details

 

Ken Lally enlisted AIF 30 Oct 1940 and later joined 2/4th’s ‘D’ Company 13 Platoon. He was wounded 2100 hours on 8 Feb 1942 and admitted to 13 AGH with shrapnel wound to his right leg.  He was discharged to unit 21 Feb 1942.

‘D’ Coy 13 Platoon

He was in the first truck load out of Lim Chu Kang Road driven by Gil Saunders.

Later was at Adam Park – Road Party.

 

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Lally was previously working at Eric H. GURR’s General Store in Carnamah from September 1939 until mid 1940 when he enlisted AIF.  He was also a member of Carnamah cricket team in 1940.

Bill Baillie, Doug Carter were also working in Carnamah.
Carter was a clerk with a bank.  They both survived and returned home.

 

 

Ken and Bill were both selected to work on Thai-Burma Railway with ‘D’ Force Thailand, V Battalion.  Their first work camp was at Kinsaiyok.  Ken’s record tells us he was transferred to Tamarkan Hospital Camp 7 May 1943 with beri beri and malaria.  He was then sent to Non Pladuk 4 Mar 1944 from where he was selected to work in Japan.

The remainder of ‘V’ Battalion including Bill Ballie (who had become batman to ‘V’  Battalion’s CO Major Alf Cough at the fighting ) moved from Kinsayok to  Kuii Camp where the sick and death numbers escalated.   Bill became one of the seriously ill and was evacuated from Kuii to Non Pladuk.  He remained in Thailand, and at the end of the war was recovered from Ubon Camp where he was working.

Please read more about Bill Baillie

For further reading go to D Company

And 13 Platoon

Ken survived the horrors of working on the Thai-Burma Railway with D Force Thailand V Battalion which endured some of the highest death rates of all Forces working on the railway.  Ken sailed on ‘Aramis’  to Japan in crowded conditions. ‘Aramis’ successfully avoided Allied attack on the unmarked ship.  He arrived safely at Moji Port, Japan 19 June 1944.

Lally was sent to the coal mines at Omuta where he died 23 March 1945 when he was crushed between two coal cars.  His body was cremated and after the war his ashes placed in the Yokohama War Cemetery.  Ken’s shocking death was have deeply affected the POWs of 2/4th, he was a popular young man.

How unfair he should  die in a a mining accident in Japan and so close to war’s end?

Read about D Force V Battalion

Read about transport ship ‘Aramis’ 

 

Please read further about Omuta POW Camp, Japan

Below:  Ken’s name is included on Japanese record for Australian deaths at Omuta.

 

LALLY, Private, KENNETH, WX9318, A.I.F. 2/4 M.G. Bn., Australian Infantry. 23 March 1945. Age 30. Son of Thomas Henry and Jessie Lally, of West Northam, Western Australia. Grave Ref. Aust. Sec. E. A. 9.

Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan.

Ken Lally is forever remembered for his sacrifice at WW2  Carnamah War Memorial.

 

Ken was only son of Thomas Henry Lally and Jessie Eggleston who married 1912 Perth.    The couple had three daughters, Amy, Doris and Iris.

Tom Lally (snr) was eldest child of a large family to Thomas Lally and Sophia Martin of Northam.   Two younger brothers enlisted WW1 joining 11th Battalion.  They fought at Galipolli.  Ken’s uncles Malcolm Almore Lally born 1898 DOW received Gallipoli 1 Aug 1915 aged 19 years.  He was buried Shell Green Cemetery.  Frederick Newland Lally returned to Western Australia 30 April 1919, he married and had a family.

Ken’s grandfather Thomas Lally (Snr) died Northam in 1942.

Ken’s parents Thomas Lally and Jessie Eggleston married 1912 Perth, WA.

Tom Lally died in 1959 and Ken’s mother Jessie died 1970 both are buried at Northam Cemetery.

 

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Ken Lally worked at the General Store at 7 Macpherson Street in Carnamah, when owned by Eric Gurr from 1937 to 1944. The building was used as a shop from its construction in 1921 until burning down in 2004.