LEE, George Edward
| Service Number: | WX4926 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 23 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, 3 June 1910 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | miner |
| Died: | Perth, Western Australia, 1 August 1967, aged 57 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia Karrakatta, Roman Catholic, HA/914 |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 23 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX4926, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX4926, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour George Edward Lee's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
George was orphaned by the age of 12. He was born in Ballarat East in 1906 (reg. 15680, as LEE-KEE), although his enlistment shows his year of birth as 1910. It's possible he and his five siblings - all born as LEE KEE or LEE-KEE but later known as LEE - did not know their actual years of birth.
The four children made wards of the state when their father, Albert LEE KEE, was committed to Ararat Asylum. He died in 1908 and his wife Lillian (Lily) died in 1918; both are interred at Ballarat New Cemetery (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/227968180/albert-lee-kee).
George and his siblings all came to WA, possibly as there was a family connection, a first cousin named Hazel Rosetta McWILLIAMS, formerly of Ballarat. Hazel's mother and George's father were siblings.
George was a POW on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. He was one of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident. Most of the 41 casualties were from George's battalion.
His brother William was killed in action in Egypt in 1942 (L/Cpl, WX4952). He and George are both recognised as Rats of Tobruk.
George married divorcee Gertrude Emily STARLING (formerly RANGER) in 1945 in Perth. Both are interred at Karrakatta Cemetery; the grantee on the grave is George's sister, Lilian VICKERS (nee LEE/LEE-KEE).