The Soldier's Details

Surname:
Lonsdale
First Name:
Joseph Lewis
Nick Name:
Lew
Rank:
Private
Regimental #:
WX16727
Company:
'B' Company Headquarters
Enlisted:
24.09.1941
Discharged:
29.04.1946
DOB:
15.05.1923
Place of Birth:
West Melbourne, Victoria
Father's Name:
Douglas Lonsdale
Mothers's Name:
Blanche Emily Lonsdale (nee Robinson)
Religion:
Church of England
Pre-war Occupation:
Sales Assistant
Singapore:
Selarang Camp Changi, Thomson Road (Caldecot Hill Estate Camp), River Valley Road Camp, Selarang Barracks Changi
Force:
'D' Force Thailand, V Battalion
Camps Thailand:
Kinsaiyok, Brankassi, Hindaine, Brankassi, Non Pladuk
Camps Japan:
Fukuoka sub-Camp No. 17, Omuta
POW#:
627
Japan:
Aramis Party
Return Details 1945:
Nagasaki-Okinawa, USS Cape Gloucester, Okinawa-Manila, details unknown, Manila-Sydney, HMS Speaker, Sydney-Fremantle, HMT Dominion Monarch.

General Description

Dennis Lane & Lew Lonsdale
Dennis Lane (died January 1945 Sandakan) and Lew Lonsdale

 

 

Lew enlisted 24 September 1941 aged 18 years.  He joined 2/4th and was Taken on Strength to Woodside Camp, South Australia on 5 October 1941. He was with ‘B’ Company Headquarters under CO Cpt Bunning.

Below:  Lonsdale’s family receive news of his wellbeing!

Please read about WA families receiving news from their sons.

Having resided in several POW Camps in Singapore, Lew was selected with ‘D’ Force V Battalion to work on the Burma-Thai Railway.   V Battalion departed Singapore Railway Station 17 March 1943.
Lew was one of the fortunate of ‘D’ Force V Battalion to survive working on the Burma-Thai Railway.  V Battalion had one of the highest death rates on the line.  50%.  Please read about this Battalion.
Not only was Lew lucky to survive the railway, he was sent to Non Pladuk when the railway was completed.  It was here he was selected by the Japanese to work in Japan with ‘Aramis’ Party.
Read about ‘Aramis’ Party to Japan.
He was sent to Omuta 17.  Omuta was truly a hell-hole – run by ‘American Mafia’.  Please read further.
For some men the thought of being crushed by collapsing ceilings, suffocation and/or blast injuries were very real. Others simply feared working in a confined space. Apprehension was dealt with the usual Japanese method of persuasion and brutality. It is known some Dutch and Americans deliberately injured themselves (breaking an arm) to avoid mine work.
WX16727 ‘Lou’ Lonsdale who arrived with ‘Aramis’ Party 19 June 1944 describes the work underground in his Affidavit to War Trials. (AWM54 File 1010/4/92)
‘We were worked 8 or 9 hours a day on shift work in the mine and were actually away from camp about 12 hours because we had to march about two miles to the mine and back again. Work in the mine was divided into three sections.
  • Work in the extraction section consisted of blasting the coal wall and shovelling coal into trucks and elevators to the surface.
  • In the preparation section work consisted of building rock walls along the tunnels as coal was being taken out, to make it as safe as possible.
  • In the exploration section work consisted of tunnelling through from given points making new laterals and coal.
Japanese and Koreans were working in the mine at same time as POWs and Chinese labour battalions working in the adjoining mine, which connected with the mine we were working in. Reports came to us that the Americans had originally owned the mine and abandoned it as they considered it unsafe to extract more coal.   When we arrived at Omuta we found the mine had been re-opened.   We were taking out pillars of coal that should have been left there for safety measures. In some parts of the mine laterals had sunk so low we were bent almost double while carrying tools such as jack hammers, shovels, picks etc. and heavy logs for timbering.   There were quite a lot of falls of coal and rock. Ironically the Japanese suffered most in these falls’.

 

 

 

Lew was the only child and son of Douglas Lonsdale and Blanche Emily Robinson who married 1919 Perth, Western Australia.  His father died on 30 April 1955 Perth aged 67.  Blanche died 26 October 1957 in Perth aged 65 years.

Douglas Lonsdale worked for WAGR at Perenjori during 1931.

 

Above:  Lew makes a happy journey back to Perenjori to visit childhood friends.

 

Lew married in 1941 to Marie Jean Waters in Perth.  Marie was from a large family.  She was the first born of about 8 or 9 children born to Donald Thomas and Marie Walton Waters.
1954 Electoral Role Marie and Lew were residing in South Perth, he was recorded as ‘trainee’.
Several years later Lew moved to Queensland.  His wife Marie died in Queensland in 1984 aged 62 years.    Lew and Marie had married 1941 Western Australia.

 

Adelaide 1993-
Adelaide 1993 Reunion.

 

Please read about HMS ‘Speaker’
Lew passed away aged 78, December 31 2002, Upper Fern Tree Gully, Vic.  He was an insurance broker.  His wife Marie died in 1984 in Queensland.  The couple had resided in Palm Beach, Coolangatta for years.
Lew Lonsdale was awarded O.A.M. in April 1995.

 

 

 

Below:  A tour by youth of district around Perenjori in 1936.

 

Camp Locations:

  • River Valley Road Camp - Singapore
  • Selarang Barracks Changi - Singapore
  • Selarang Camp Changi - Singapore
  • Thomson Road (Caldecot Hill Estate Camp) - Singapore
  • Brankassi, Prang Kasi, 208k - Thailand
  • Hindaine, Kui Mang 200k - Thailand
  • Kinsaiyok Main, 170.2k - Thailand
  • Non Pladuk, 0k - Thailand
  • Omuta Miike, Fukuoka #17-B - Japan
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