Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The following entry was recorded at page 108 in the war diaries of SX11212 PTE Kevin Kenny, published as 'How I won the war with three aces and a pair of twos' (Third Edition) - copies of which are held by the Army Museum of South Australia, and the State Library of South Australia:

'10 May 45 Thursday. Peter Martin is 21 today, so we have a coconut for breakfast, and another one for dinner.'

The Australian War Memorial lists all POWs in Malaya and Singapore at awm.au/Collection/C1380403. This list records 62 Australian POWs named Martin. Of these, 2 have the initial P. One a CPL, and one a PTE, and both from the 4th Australian Reserve Motor Transport Company.

The PTE is VX56926 PTE Peter Gordon Martin.

Most records show his date of birth as 8 November 1920, however, the National Australian Archives (see attached photo), show his date of birth as 10 May 1924. The photo is an extract from the records held in the Changi POW Camp in Singapore.

PTE Peter Martin's service record shows that he enlisted on 5 June 1941. If this is correct, and he was born on 10 May 1924, then at enlistment, he was aged 17 years and 3 weeks! It seems that, on enlistment, he gave his date of birth as 8 November 1920 as a false date of birth to his enlisting officer.

It should also be noted that, for the duration, POWs in Singapore were paid $7.50 per month, and the cost of a coconut from the soldiers' canteen in Changi in May 1945, was $2.50.