RABAUL MEMORIAL
HISTORY INFORMATION
Between 1884 and 1914, New Britain was known as New Pomerania and part of German New Guinea. On the 11th September 1914, in one of Australia's first actions of the 1914-18 war, its troops seized the German wireless station at Bitapaka near Rabaul. After the war, the island became part of the Territory of New Guinea, which was an Australian mandated territory. The site of the wireless station became the War Cemetery.
In January 1942, after three weeks of air bombardment, Rabaul was attacked by the Japanese from the sea, and overwhelming odds soon broke the defence. It is estimated that against the original garrison of 1,400 the Japanese landed 17,000 men in the immediate vicinity of Rabaul. The defenders split into small groups and while some 400 managed to escape by sea a great number were killed or captured. Of the latter, some 160 were murdered by the Japanese near Tol in February, whilst most of the remainder, plus some 200 civilians, were drowned when the ship, the Montevideo Maru, was torpedoed and sunk whilst moving them to the Philippines. Nevertheless a number of the original garrison ran the gauntlet of the Japanese patrol and reached Australian territory in small vessels, overlooked when the Japanese commander sent destroyers steaming up and down the coast smashing all the boats to be found.
Small forces on New Ireland, which lies near and north-north-east of New Britain, had been attacked and overwhelmed on January 21st, 1942. It was not until November 1944 that New Britain was again the scene of fighting, when the 5th Australian Division landed at Jacquinot Bay, and the 11th Division at Wide Bay. The two Divisions cleared the north and south coasts and bottled up the enemy in the Gazelle Peninsula. Here the Japanese were contained until the final surrender in August 1945, when the number of their troops was found to be nearly 90,000.
The Rabaul Memorial commemorates over 1,200 members of the Australian Army (including personnel of the New Guinea and Papuan local forces and constabulary) and the Royal Australian Air Force, who lost their lives in New Britain and New Ireland in January and February 1942 or who were lost as a result of the sinking of the S.S. Montevideo Maru in July 1942 and those in New Britain from November 1944 to August 1945, who have no known grave. Men of the Royal Australian Navy who lost their lives in the south-western Pacific region and who have no graves but the sea, are commemorated on Plymouth Naval Memorial in England along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and other Commonwealth Naval Forces.
The Memorial takes the form of an avenue of stone pylons leading from the entrance building to the Cross of Sacrifice. Bronze panels bearing the names are affixed to the faces of the pylons. A central stone lectern at the commencement of the avenue carries a bronze plate with the following dedicatory inscription:
AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM
IN THIS PLACE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS WHO DIED DURING THE 1939-1945 WAR IN THE NEW BRITAIN AREA, ON LAND, AT SEA AND IN THE AIR, BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNES OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH
The memorial was unveiled in October 1953 by Field Marshal Sir William Slim, Governor-General of Australia.
-
SURNAME
Brown-Bishop
FORENAME
Ronald
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
QX12632
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
23
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 25.03.1919, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
son of Reginald...
-
SURNAME
Bromilow
FORENAME
Richard Henry
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
VX48425
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
26
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 21.10.1915, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
son of Harry...
-
SURNAME
Boyd
FORENAME
Charles William
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Lance Corporal
NUMBER
VX29988
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
23
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 26.07.1918, Sherrington, Wiltshire, UK
father William...
-
SURNAME
Bleasby
FORENAME
Charles William
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
VX50213
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
21
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 24.10.1920, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia
son of...
-
SURNAME
Bexton
FORENAME
Victor
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
NX56324
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
24
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 18.06.1918, Lindfield, New South Wales, Australia
son of Arthur...
-
SURNAME
Barrett
FORENAME
Francis Alfred
UNIT
M Special Unit (Infantry)
RANK
Lieutenant
NUMBER
NX18434
DATE OF DEATH
24th October 1943
AGE
32
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 11
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 03.09.1911, Sydney, New South Wales
son of Alfred...
-
SURNAME
Attwood
FORENAME
Frederick Joseph
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
NX69687
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
28
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 18.03.1914, Sussex, England
son of Alexander James and...
-
SURNAME
Armstrong
FORENAME
William Eric
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
WX9761
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
28
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 15.09.1913, Perth, Western Australia
son of William Joseph...
-
SURNAME
Andrew
FORENAME
Basil
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
VX34318
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
26
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 17.02.1916, Orbost, Victoria, Australia
son of A.W. and Clarice May...
-
SURNAME
Ainsbury
FORENAME
Dudley Royes
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
QX10930
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
19
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 10.05.1919, Mount Garnet, Queensland, Australia (dob...
-
SURNAME
Barrett
FORENAME
Richard Walter
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
NX20493
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
22
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 23.06.1919, Newcastle, New South Wales
son of Walter and...
-
SURNAME
Smith
FORENAME
Ronald Burton
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
QX16533
DATE OF DEATH
4th February 1942
AGE
23
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 14
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
son of William Laver and Ellen Wilhelmina Smith,Flagstone...
-
SURNAME
Smith
FORENAME
Harold Percy
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
VX48510
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
30
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 14
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
son of Arthur William and Sarah Ada Smith
husband of Margaret...
-
SURNAME
Smith
FORENAME
Frank William
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
NX27430
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
23
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 14
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
son of William Henry and Mary Elizabeth Smith,Hurstville,New South...
-
SURNAME
Smith
FORENAME
Edwin David
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
NX16030
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
21
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 14
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
son of Thomas Proctor and Eva Bertha Louise Smith
POW 2.2.1942 at sea...
-
SURNAME
Brown
FORENAME
Edward John
UNIT
2/1 Independent Company
RANK
Private
NUMBER
WX10624
DATE OF DEATH
1st July 1942
AGE
19
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial, Papua New Guinea Panel 12
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 27.07.1920, Yalgoo, Western Australia, Australia
son of Lindsay...
-
SURNAME
Barclay
FORENAME
Geoffrey Joseph
UNIT
2/2 Commando Squadron
RANK
Trooper
NUMBER
NX44647
DATE OF DEATH
6th May 1945
AGE
23
GRAVESITE
Rabaul Memorial,Papua New Guinea Panel 1
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
born 19.06.1921, Auburn, New South Wales, Australia
son of Joseph...