Graham GAGE

GAGE, Graham

Service Number: SX8023
Enlisted: 5 July 1940
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park
Born: Rosewater, South Australia, 15 August 1910
Home Town: Adelaide, South Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Not yet discovered
Died: Drowned, Adelaide, South Australia, 3 December 1965, aged 55 years
Cemetery: Centennial Park Cemetery, South Australia
General E Path 12 Grave 910
Memorials: Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

5 Jul 1940: Involvement Private, SX8023, 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park
5 Jul 1940: Enlisted Wayville, South Australia
5 Jul 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, SX8023
23 May 1945: Discharged

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Biography

Graham Gage born 15 Aug 1910 in Rosewater South Australia. Married Harriett Louise Lennard They had three Children. Raelene, Robert and Helen They lived in Franklin Street in Adelaide near the corner of West Terrace in a group of town houses until the 1980s. The family story goes that Uncle Graham enlisted and very soon after became a POW (I think on the Burma Railway) He was a POW for years and when the war was over he was released and returned to Adelaide. The story is that his wife walked right past him and did not recognise him when he walked home, because he was so thin. He died in 3 Dec 1965 when he walked from his home in Franklin Street Adelaide to Henley Beach where he took off his clothes, folded them neatly by the shore and walked into the sea.

In March 1944 Graham was taken POW Tamarkan Thailand. They were then transported by rail to Bangkok and Phnom Penn, then by boat on the Mekong River to Saigon where they stayed in a disused foreign legion camp. The prisoners were then transported to Singapore for four months, then put on a ship "Rakuyo Maru" for transportation to Japan. 700 Australians and 600 British were on board when at 0522 12 Sept 1944 the ship was hit by 3 torpeodos fired from the "USS Sealion" resulting in the sinking of the "Rakuyo Maru" in the China Sea. On 15 Sept the "USS Sealion" then assisted in picking up survivors, Graham was one of those survivors and was subsequntly discharged 23 May 1945.

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