STRICKLAND, Ronald Basil
| Service Number: | WX10021 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 13 December 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Tambellup, Western Australia, 15 August 1920 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | carpenter |
| Died: | Perth, Western Australia, 17 October 1992, aged 72 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
| 13 Dec 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX10021 | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Sep 1941: | Embarked 13th Training Battalion (AIF), from Fremantle; disembarked in the Middle East on 23 Sep 1941 | |
| 10 Apr 1942: | Transferred 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; by train the next day to Perth, arriving 22 Nov 1944 | |
| 21 Mar 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX10021 |
Help us honour Ronald Basil Strickland's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
Ron was the third of five children born to William James STRICKLAND and Madeline Barbara NEILSON.
Ron and his eldest brother, William, enlisted in the AIF on the same day in Dec 1940. Four days later, their younger brother Alan enlisted, giving his age as 18 (he was actually 17). He was discharged at his own request within weeks. Alan enlisted again in Jan 1942, this time making himself 21, rather than his real age of 18; this time he saw active service.
Ron was captured at El Alamein when surrounded by German tanks, and ordered to surrender by the commanding officer. He 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. Ron was one of 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident.
While in Montreux, Switzerland, Ron met his future wife Margarete Ann Theresa (nee VILLIERS), known as Anita. A newpaper article tells the story that they met through a bet (The Daily News, 22 Nov 1945, p. 1). Anita saw four men walking down the street and she bet her friends a box of chocolates that they were British, not Polish. She won the bet and they invited the four men in for a cup of tea.
In the same article, Anita claimed to be a war widow, stating that her first husband Wing Commander John REEVES was killed in action in 1939. No record has been found of their marriage nor his death.
Anita arrived in Australia in Nov 1945, one of 59 Australian servicemen's wives aboard the steamer Umtali from England. She had a 5-year-old son named John. Ron and Anita settled in Maylands, a suburb of Perth, and had several children together.
Ron died in Perth WA in 1992 at age 72. Anita died in Aug 2001 in Albany WA at age 89.