The Soldier's Details
- Surname:
- Evans
- First Name:
- Walter Cyril
- Rank:
- Private
- Regimental #:
- WX9230
- Company:
- 'A' Company, No. 6 Platoon.
- Enlisted:
- 30.10.1940
- DOB:
- 3.05.1902
- Place of Birth:
- England
- Father's Name:
- William George Evans
- Mothers's Name:
- Annie Evans
- Religion:
- Methodist
- Pre-war Occupation:
- Stevedore
- Memorial:
- Labuan War Cemetery, Plot R, Row AA, Grave 16, Age 43.
- Singapore:
- Selarang Camp Changi
- Force:
- 'B' Force Borneo
- POW#:
- 1465
- Cause of Death:
- Malaria
- Place of Death:
- Sandakan‐Ranau track 2nd Ranau march - Kolapis
- Date of Death:
- 16.06.1945
General Description
- Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of WX9230 Private Walter Cyril Evans, 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, Australian Infantry. He was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1494 POW’s that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942. Private Evans, aged 43, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 14 June 1945. He was the son of William George and Annie Evans and the husband of Ida Mary Evans, of Albany, WA. He is buried in the Labuan Cemetery Section R, Row A, Plot 16. (Photograph copied from AWM232, items 4 and 5. Personal information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database.)
Walter was husband to Ida Mary Evans (nee Carpenter) of Albany. They had married in 1935 and had two daughters Val and Audrey.
Evans was selected in Singapore to sail to Borneo with ‘B’ Force on 8 July 1942 to work for the Japanese constructing an aerodrome near Sandakan. Read further about Borneo.
His remains were recovered after the war at Kolapis on the Sandakan-Ranau track. It could not be determined whether Evans escaped from Sandakan and died or he took ill on the march and died 16 June 1945. Unfortunately there were so few POWs alive by this time; those who did escape had already left.
Cyril’s body was later moved to the Labuan War Cemetery.
Walter Evans enlisted AIF 30 October 1940, joining 2/4th MGB’s ‘A’ Coy, No. 6 Platoon under Commanding Officers Lt Morrison and Lt Branson.
Clifton and Shackleton were in also in ‘A’ Coy and all three lived in the Albany region with a similar English migrant background. If they had not known each other prior to enlistment they would have become friends.
Neither Evans nor Shackleton returned to WA. Ken Clifton later married Enid Shackleton.
The following is from
‘Australian Government
Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal
REPORT OF THE INQUIRY INTO RECOGNITION FOR FAR EAST PRISONERS OF WAR WHO WERE KILLED WHILE ESCAPING OR FOLLOWING RECAPTURE’
The above information states Ken Evans died 14 June 1945 at Kolapis.
Camp Locations:
- Selarang Camp Changi - Singapore
- Sandakan - Borneo ***
