Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Samuel Vincent McDowall was born on 30 April 1901 in Laura, South Australia to Florence Lily Henrietta Covacevich and James McDowall. Samuel’s father died when Samuel was only two years old in 1903. This would have been a very difficult time for Samuel’s mother raising and trying to support young children while grieving the loss of her husband. Widows and their young families were particularly vulnerable to poverty during the war, and this may well have been the reason why the family relocated to the suburb of Lockleys in Adelaide. It seems likely that Samuel’s mother Florence moved her young family to Adelaide to be closer to family support.

There is no information on Samuel’s schooling years, and it is unclear when he left school to join the work force. In Samuel’s Attestation Form he states that he was a member of the ‘Church of England’. Samuel also stated that he was a Senior Cadet at the time of his enlistment. Being a Senior Cadet, he would likely have given instruction to the Junior Cadets and contributed to the development of the Cadet training programs. In the article ‘Australian Army Cadets: History’ it states that with Australia facing war there was an increased military focus within the Cadet system and numbers grew by 57% during 1939-1945 (Australian Government Defence 2023). This would likely have encouraged Samuel to enlist into the army and fight for his country.

War documents indicate that before Samuel enlisted into the A.I.F he was employed as a steward (Australian Military Forces Attestation Form 1940). The common meaning of a steward in that era was a person who was employed to look after passengers on ships, aircrafts and trains. Further war documents indicate that Samuel had 3 dependents including a son (National Archives of Australia 2023, pages 5 and 12). It is unclear how old the children were when Samuel enlisted into the A.I.F.

At the age of 39 on the 21 June 1940, Samuel McDowall enlisted into the Australian Imperial Forces, in the 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park. The Ammunition Sub-Park was part of the mechanical transport companies, a fleet of trucks which transported ammunition for the army. They trained in Woodside, South Australia until April 1941, then went to Alice Springs, Northern Territory until September 1941 (Virtual War Memorial Australia 2023). With all their equipment and fleet of trucks they then undertook a long difficult journey by ship to Malaya landing on 2 November 1941 (NAA 2023, page 9). Less than three months later on 15 February 1942, after the Fall of Singapore, the 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park surrendered to the Japanese. This began a harrowing three and a half years as Prisoners of War (Virtual War Memorial Australia 2023). Men of the 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park were drafted onto forced labour tasks in Borneo, Siam, Burma, and Japan as Prisoners of War between 16 February 1942 to 15 August 1946, it is unclear exactly which project Samuel was working on but records indicate that other men in his unit were forced to work on various projects such as the Changi Airfield, Burma Thailand Railway, The Sandakan Death March, building bridges and digging 25 metres by 25 metres ‘foxholes’ which the Japs informed them were their own graves.

Charles Elston, a former POW, in his interview in 2015 for the book ‘Captive Memories’ recalls the trauma and horror of seeing his comrades forced to dig their own graves. This memory haunts him to this day. Another member of the 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park Max Venables recalls being hit by sticks when the Japs didn’t think they were working hard enough (Australian War Memorial 2023).

Members of the 8th Division Ammunition Sub-Park were imprisoned in the densely overcrowded Changi Gaol sleeping side by side on the floor, each man having only enough room for himself, forming callouses on their shoulders and hips from the hardness of the floor (Chapple 1978). Lice and scabies were rampant making the prisoners existence even more difficult (Venables 2001). POWs were fed only small amounts of rice, a piece of bread and watery soup consisting of boiled water, carrots, and radish. The lack of protein and poor nutrition made the heavy work very difficult, and the malnutrition caused illnesses such as pellagra and beri beri (Chapple 1978). Samuel suffered from both of these illnesses, pellagra being caused by a deficiency of vitamin B3 and beri beri caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1 (DVA 2020). These illnesses were potentially life threatening and caused skin lesions, diarrhoea, muscle wasting and partial paralysis. In war documents relating to Samuel, it lists all of Samuels medical problems as a result of being a POW. These included head injuries left sided paralysis, dysentery which caused more than a third of POW deaths, ascariasis, which is round worm infestation, debility and disseminated sclerosis. The Japanese provided no medical care for sick and injured prisoners (Hului 2021).

Samuel eventually was rescued from the Japanese on 28 September 1945. He was taken from Osaka to Manilla where he was then flown back to Australia on 14 October 1945 (NAA 2023). Samuel must have felt massive relief being back on Australian soil after being imprisoned, starved, and likely tortured for so long. He wouldn’t have known if he was going to survive or if he was ever going to see his family again. Even though Samuel was back on Australian soil and reunited with his family he must have struggled with his health problems and mental state as many ex-Prisoners of War did. At the end of the war, Samuel was diagnosed with disseminated sclerosis, now known as multiple sclerosis. This condition cannot be cured and results in nerve damage which causes problems with communication between the brain and the body (Mayo  Clinic 2023). Samuel died of natural causes in 1977 at the age of 76 years old.