STOUSE, Charles Richard
| Service Number: | WX11939 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 29 April 1941 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Portsmouth, England, 15 July 1910 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | labourer |
| Died: | Perth, Western Australia, 17 February 1986, aged 75 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 29 Apr 1941: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX11939 | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Sep 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , 13th Training Battalion (AIF), from Fremantle; disembarked in the Middle East on 23 Sep 1941 | |
| 30 Dec 1941: | Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, from 24th Australian Infantry Training Battalion | |
| 27 Jul 1942: | Imprisoned El Alamein, missing in action; officially reported POW on 28 Oct 1942 | |
| 13 Oct 1944: | Embarked from Uk (ex Italy) to Australia; disembarked in Melbourne on 17 Nov 1944, then by train to Perth the next day, arriving on 22 Nov 1944 | |
| 1 Jun 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX11939 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
Charles was the son of Charles Thomas Everett STOUSE and Rosina Bacon TAYLOR. He was described as 5' 6" with hazel eyes and dark hair.
Charles married Dorothy Edith SPENCE (nee JECKS) in 1935 in Perth. He enlisted in 1941 and was captured at El Alamein in July 1942 when surrounded by German tanks and ordered to surrender by the commanding officer.
Charles 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. Charles was one of 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident.
Despite being returned to Perth after his discharge in 1945, Charles moved east. In 1953, Charles requested and received replacement medals after his were lost in the flooding of Milperra NSW in winter 1950.
Charles and his first wife divorced; she did not remarry. In 1958, Charles remarried to Dorothy Lucy BYWAY, who was about 15 years his junior, in Sydney NSW.
In 1959, Dorothy wrote to the Victoria Barracks, requesting a replacement active service badge after it was stolen from his coat. Her request was denied, as only one replacement medal could be issued. They were living in Summer Hill NSW at the time. Charles had worked for the NSW Department of Public Health as an Attendant since 1957; he resigned in 1965.
At some stage, they returned to WA.
Charles died in Perth in Feb 1986 at age 75. His second wife Dorothy died in Boyup Brook WA in Nov 1996 at age 70 and is memorialised at Bunbury Cemetery.