Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 Edwin was born on the 28th of August 1906 in Blaby Leicestershire England.  His mother was Caroline Haynes and his father Alfred Charles Murby.  His father, a shoe finisher, passed away from tuberculosis in 1916 at the age of 43. His mother remarried in 1920.  He was the fourth eldest and only boy amongst seven children.  His sisters were Helen, Beatrice, Doris, Jessie, Eveline and Elsie.  Opportunities in the midlands were limited with many choosing to migrate, like his uncle William Warner Murby who emigrated to Canada in 1908 and his aunt Emma (Murby) Bodicoat and her family who emigrated to Perth in 1924.  At the age of 19, seeking opportunity and adventure, he emigrated alone to Australia arriving in Melbourne on the 30 May 1926 aboard the SS Baradine.¹  

On the journey to Australia Edwin met the Eason family and joined with them to travel to work on a farm in Marulan NSW.   He then moved to P.F Aylett’s orchard Glenisla at The Rock where he met his life partner, Gladys.  Electoral records indicate they had moved to Killara by 1930 and then to Hornsby around 1932 with Edwin working as a Milk Carter to support his partner and their two young children.

Edwin enlisted at Paddington on the 9th of June 1941 at the age of 39.  His attestation form has him listed as single with his next of kin noted as his de-facto wife Gladys (Herring) Murby.  At this time they lived on the Pacific Highway Hornsby.²  Gladys’s first husband and father of her two elder children, Richard Herring VX42332,  enlisted in 1940 in Corryong.  Richard was with Weary Dunlop’s men in Thailand and died at the Konyu POW camp near the Hellfire Pass in 1943.³

Private Edwin Murby NX30149  commenced his training in Tamworth  on 13th June 1941.  He enjoyed a short embarkation leave of seven days from 6 August 1941. He embarked on board the SS Sibajak on the 17 September 1941  arriving in Singapore on the 5th of October.  He was “taken on strength” into the HQ (Headquarters) company 3rd Mortar Platoon, C section, of the 2/30 battalion on 6 Dec 1941.  This battalion was under the command of “Black Jack” Galleghan and was known as Galleghan’s Greyhounds.  The 2/30th Battalion were involved in a number of engagements in Malay including the first AIF skirmish with the Japanese at Gemencheh Bridge at the following day at Gemas.  They challenged the Japanese at a number of locations including The Causeway and Thomson Road.  They surrendered at Tyersall Palace Singapore on the 15th of February 1942 and were interred at Changi POW camp until 1943.    Edwin was part of a series of work parties at Thomson Road, Mount Pleasant, Caldicott Hill , working on the construction of a hill top Shinto Shrine and two memorials to Japanese and Australian dead on top of Bukit Timah Hill.  

On the 22nd of April 1943 he was entrained to “F Force” which consisted of 7000 men of which 3662 were Australian POWs.  On the 23 April he was loaded onto  Train 5, Truck 13 for Thailand.  There were approximately 600 men on each train, with 28 men to each steel rice truck for a journey of five days.  After the trains arrival at Bam Pong they marched 330km over 20 nights.  Upon arrival at Shimo Sonkurai on 18th May 1943 they had to form work parties to build camp and to commence clearing the jungle for the eventual railway.  The Australian camps number one (Shimo Sonkurai)  and number 5 camp (Changaraya) were heavily effected by cholera, exhaustion, Beri Beri amongst other tropical disease and this resulted in the death of 1060 Australian POW’s from April until November 1943.   Edwin was fortunate to be one of those that survived and was transferred along with the remainder of F  Force  to Kan Buri Hospital Camp about 80km from Bangkok in mid November 1943.⁴

On return to Singapore on the 17 December 1943 he was rostered in the X8 Tunnelling party working in the vicinity of Jurying Road and was recovered from Adam Park  Camp in September 1945.   He returned to Australia on board the Manunda on the 27th October 1945 and was reunited with his family who were now living in North Williamstown Victoria, where Gladys had worked to support the war effort at W.G.Goetz & Sons Engineering in Spotswood.  His army records at discharge indicate that he was no longer single and now married to Gladys. He was officially discharged from the army on 10th of January 1946 on compassionate grounds. For his service he was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the Pacific Star, the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945. 

He enjoyed a long and happy marriage upon return to Australia living in Footscray until 1972.  He worked as a process worker for Sulphates Ltd in Yarraville  and after retirement they moved to Mitcham.  He rarely spoke about his POW experience except to teach his grandchildren how to count in Japanese.   He died on the 12 January 1983, after a battle with cancer, Gladys passed later the same year.  He was survived by his and Gladys’s combined four adult children (Medic, Phillip, Jessie and Edwin), eight grandchildren, as well as four of his sisters (Doris, Jessie, Evelyn and Elsie).

Sources:

¹NAA: K269, 30 MAY 1926 BARRADINE

²NAA: B883, NX30149

³VWMA: https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/632003 Richard William Herring

 ⁴2/30 Battalion, http://www.230battalion.org.au