Kevin Milbank LOADER

Kevin Milbank LOADER Update Details

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LOADER, Kevin Milbank

Service Number:	SX10163
Enlisted:	16 August 1940, Adelaide, South Australia
Last Rank:	Sergeant
Last Unit:	22 Independent Brigade Group Ordnance Workshop AAOC
Born:	Port Broughton, South Australia, 11 October 1911
Home Town:	Kensington Park, Burnside, South Australia
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Motor engineering/Machining specialist
Died:	Malaria whilst a prisoner of the Japanese, Borneo, 13 May 1945, aged 33 years
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Labuan Memorial - Panel 28.
Memorials:	Adelaide WW2 Wall of Remembrance, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Labuan Memorial, Labuan Federal Territory, Malaysia

World War 2 Service

16 Aug 1940:	Enlisted Private, SX10163, Army Training Units, Adelaide, South Australia
16 Aug 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Sergeant, SX10163
13 Jul 1941:	Involvement Sergeant, SX10163, 22 Independent Brigade Group Ordnance Workshop AAOC, Australia's Northern Periphery, Part of the 8th Division sent to garrison Malaya and the northern island groups from Rabaul to Singapore
7 Dec 1941:	Involvement Sergeant, SX10163, 22 Independent Brigade Group Ordnance Workshop AAOC, Malaya/Singapore
16 Feb 1942:	Involvement Sergeant, SX10163, 22 Independent Brigade Group Ordnance Workshop AAOC, Prisoners of War, Part of 'B Force' sent to Sandakan Borneo. Kevin died there of malaria just prior to the commencement of the infamous Sandakan death march,. From over 2,500 men there were only six survivors.
Date unknown:	Involvement

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Biography

Kevin and his mates left Singapore on the Tramp steamer Yubi Maru. This vessel is listed on the Japanese Hell Ship list. He and other B Force members arrived in Borneo on the 7th July 1942.

He contracted malaria and died 13th May 1945 at 0505 hours Borneo time. He was given the death roll number of 899, dying in Sandakan No 1 camp.

I was shown where his body was located along with others but could he not be formally identified for certain and was reinterred at Labuan Cemetery Known Unto God. I was fortunate enough to be in Labuan CWGC Cemetery in 2010 with a group which comprised a piper namely Barry Ward and we piped a lament for my mothers cousin Kevin Loader and his mates. In 1942 Kevin applied for a patent for an amoured motor cycle which he forwarded to the War Department. The idea was rejected, I was able to puchase a copy of the drawing. - Bob Sandow

"...SX10163 Sergeant Kevin Milbank Loader, 22nd Independent Brigade Group Ordnance Workshop, Australian Army Ordnance Corps. He was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1494 POW's that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942. Sergeant Loader, aged 33, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 13 May 1945. He was the son of George and Edi May Loader, of Kensington Park, SA. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 28..." - SOURCE (www.awm.gov.au)

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