Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

CORPORAL JOHN de WHITE “JACK” COMMANE

SERVICE No: SX8568

Born on 6 November 1912 at Quambi Nursing Home, Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide, Jack was the son of Jane Catherine White and Thomas Ambrose Joseph Commane of the Cleve Hotel. Jack married Ellen Mary Young on 25 August at Renmark on 25 August 1937. The couple had two daughters.

It is possible that Jack was employed by the South Australian Railways when he was involved in a railway accident in 1937. Did this accident contribute to his eventual discharge from the army in 1944?

LEG BADLY CRUSHED

John de White Commane, son of Mr and Mrs T. A Commane, of Renmark, met with a serious accident on Thursday last when a rail motor section car collided with another section car near Nangari. Parties had been working on the line between Pungonda and Nangari, and when the car which the injured man was in reached a spot opposite the Nangari store a collision occurred. Commane, it is reported, was sitting on the front of the car and had his legs over the edge of it. He is an inmate of the Renmark hospital with two bones broken in his right leg and bad lacerations on both legs.

Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record, Thursday 4 November 1937

Employed as a barman, Jack enlisted at Renmark on 5 July 1940. His time in the military did not get off to a good start as he was stuck down with a dose of the measles.

Initially posted to 3 Infantry Training Depot at Wayville and then to the Cavalry Wing of 2 Infantry Training Depot, Jack was taken on strength of 9 Division Ammunition Sub Park on 28 November 1940. “Ammunition Sub Park” was a functional secondary title for certain Transport Companies of the Australian Army Service Corp. It was in essence a fleet of lorries and a workshop for maintaining them. A Sub Park attached for operational purposes to a Division and acted as part of that Division’s supply chain.

It is not clear why Jack did not entrain to Sydney with other members of his unit for embarkation with 8 Division Ammunition Sub Park on 25 October 1941, but the decision certainly saved him from 3½ years as a prisoner of the Japanese, or possible death on the notorious Burma railway. 8 Division Ammunition Sub Park embarked from Australia on 2 November 1941 but on that day Jack’s service record shows that he marched into 7 Military District. 8 Division Ammunition Sub Park personnel were part of the surrender to the Japanese that took place on 15 February 1942. It was not until 10 August that Jack was transferred from 8 Division Ammunition Sub Park to 8 Australian Army Service Corp Northern Territory Force. During this time Jack was accidently injured while on duty. Although the cause is unknown he suffered morbid bruising of his 2nd right toe. On recovery from his injury he was attached to 11 Support Personnel Coy at Adelaide River from 25 May until 13 July.

In late January 1943 Jack moved to New South Wales with 8 Australian Army Service Corp and on 21 April was admitted to 12 Australian Camp Hospital at Sydney Showgrounds, and then 113 Australian General Hospital in Sydney, with what was described as ulcer/lesion and pressure sores on his right heel. Five months later he was discharged to Bonnie Brae Convalescent Home on the North Shore of Sydney. After a month he was readmitted to 113 AGH, with scarring of his right heel, and then to 103 Convalescent Depot at Ingleburn. After 2 months he was admitted to 115 Australian Military Hospital at Heidelberg in Melbourne, from which he was discharged for return to South Australia. On 15 February 1944 Jack was admitted to 105 Australian General Hospital, at Springbank in Adelaide, where a new diagnosis of “pressure atrophy of anterior tibial group of muscles’’ was made.

Jack’s medical classification was assessed as “Medically unfit for military service” and he was discharged medically unfit on 19 May 1944.

Jack died on 7 August 1979, aged 66, and is buried in the Renmark Cemetery.