NELSON, John Charles
| Service Number: | WX9903 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 11 December 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Broomehill, Western Australia, 7 December 1901 |
| Home Town: | Broomehill, Broomehill-Tambellup, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Fractured skull, Karragullen, Western Australia, 5 May 1949, aged 47 years |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia Roman Catholic area, SC/598 |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 11 Dec 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX9903 | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Jul 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Infantry Training Battalions, from Fremantle for the Middle East | |
| 2 Oct 1941: | Transferred 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
| 30 Sep 1942: | Imprisoned El Alamein, reported missing in action 27 Jul 1942; interned various POW camps (Italy); returned to UK Dec 1944, arriving in Australia (Melbourne) Mar 1945; detrained in Perth Apr 1945 | |
| 25 Jul 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private |
Help us honour John Charles Nelson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
John, known as Jack, was the sixth of nine children born to Alfred and Elizabeth Nelson. John's youngest brother died at 18 months of age in 1910. His mother Elizabeth died soon after. His father Alfred remarried in 1914 to Elizabeth Colbeck Smithson (nee Hall).
John's three surviving brothers all served, the eldest two in WWI, and the youngest in WWII.
John's battalion was captured at Ruin Ridge, El Alamein. He was 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. John was one of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident.
He spent the next two years or so interned at various POW camps, before being returned to Australia via the UK in 1945.
By early 1949, he had found work at Smailes Timber Mill in Karragullen as a timber faller. He had only a few weeks' experience in the job when he went out alone and met with a tragic accident, his skull being crushed by a falling branch. He was 48 years old.