Harold Thomas (Harry) BUNKER

Harold Thomas (Harry) BUNKER Update Details

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BUNKER, Harold Thomas

Service Numbers:	WX9223, WX9223
Enlisted:	30 October 1940
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion
Born:	Mt Barker, Western Australia, 26 September 1919
Home Town:	Albany, Albany, Western Australia
Schooling:	Albany High School, Western Australia
Occupation:	Farm Hand
Died:	Perth, Western Australia, 29 February 2000, aged 80 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Fremantle Cemetery, Western Australia The Western Australian Garden of Remembrance
Memorials:	Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

World War 2 Service

30 Oct 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX9223
6 Feb 1942:	Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX9223, 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion, embarked Darwin for Singapore
1 Nov 1944:	Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX9223, 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion, Saipan-Guadalcanal to Perth via Brisbane
6 Jun 1945:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX9223, 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion

Help us honour Harold Thomas Bunker's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Private Harold Thomas Bunker (Service No:WX9223) enlisted in the Army on 30 October 1940 - graded Rangetaker. Private Bunker served with 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion and was taken PoW by the Japanese in Singapore in 1942 (confirmed as PoW No:1509 on 11 May 1943). Brother-in-Law Don Ross (Service No:WX9253) was also with 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion and died in Sandakan. Private Bunker was interned in Singapore (Selarang Camp, Changi), Thailand (Tamarkan) and Burma (Victoria Point, Kendau 4.8km, Thetkaw 14km, Meiloe 75km and Aunggangaung 105km). On 12 September 1944, Private Bunker was one of eleven men from 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion rescued when the Rakayu Maru was torpedoed in the South China Sea by US submarines, Private Bunker embarked for Perth via Brisbane on 1 November 1944 and hospitalised for medical rehabilitation before Discharge on 6 June 1945.

Harry - youngest of eight children - was born in Mt Barker in 1920 to George Edward Bunker (b1876 in Melbourne, Victoria) and Annie Ansit Williams (b1882 in Melbourne, Victoria). George worked in the Kalgoorlie/Boulder Goldfields as a Miner and Fireman, and he and Annie married in 1901. By 1910 the family had moved to Clifton Hill Farm at Tenterden before settling at Happy Valley Farm at Mortigallup via Albany where George was a Farmer.

Harry attended Mortigallup Primary School and Albany High School and worked for his father as a Farm Hand. In 1940 in Albany, WA he married Doris Spears (b1920 in Albany, WA). Following his Discharge, he and Doris lived briefly in Albany before settling in Perth where Harry was a Carpenter. Doris died in 1998 and Harry in 2000.

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