Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

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Alick ‘Darby’ Khan (NX43926; NX43926), of ‘dark complexion’, was born in 1908 in Breeza, Tamworth, New South Wales. Darby Khan, a young Australian-born Indian, a son of an Indian, Cammas Khan, of Gurranang and Lena Khan, a half-caste woman who had 7 children. Darby worked as a sleeper-cutter and bullock driver. When enlisted, he was a widower.

He enlisted in 1941 in Paddington, New South Wales. Private Darby Khan served in the Australian Army in Australia and overseas in Malaya. For his operational service in Malaya, he embarked on 10 January 1942 and disembarked on 24 October 1945. While fighting in Malaya, he became a POW captured by the Japanese and held in Thailand RTA. He experienced the perils of life in the prison, facing terror, starving, pain and grief along with back-breaking labour. An Army casualty list mentioned Darby Khan ‘alive in Siam’, then later reported that he had recovered. Private Darby Khan was issued the 1939/45 and the Pacific Stars, the War Medal and the Australia Service Medals.

A year and a half after being discharged, Darby died in Grafton Hospital from burns suffered while he was asleep near the Pacific Highway, two miles from South Grafton. Sadly, it was his fate that he survived in the prison, but tragically lost his life in an accident near his home. He had lit a fire in the early morning before he went to sleep on the ground and the flames spread to the grass on which he laid. Main Roads’ Department employees found Darby semiconscious in the morning and an ambulance took him to hospital. Badly injured, Darby said in the ambulance car that he had lit the fire to keep warm during the night, and had awakened when flames were burning his body and clothes. He beat out the flames on his legs, but was too weak to call out for aid. Members of the Returned Soldiers’ League attended Alick Darby Khan funeral.

From the book:

Dzavid Haveric, 'A History of Muslims in the Australian Military from 1885 to 1945: Loyalty, Patriotism, Contribution’, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, London, 2024