Vivian Claude (Viv) BATH

BATH, Vivian Claude

Service Number: VX47978
Enlisted: 27 July 1940, Caulfield, Victoria
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion
Born: Morgan, South Australia, 30 June 1904
Home Town: Mildura, Mildura Shire, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Jockey/Professional Fisherman
Died: Died of illness (war service related), Mildura, Victoria, 4 May 1983, aged 78 years
Cemetery: Not yet discovered
Memorials: Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Renmark District Roll of Honour WW2
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World War 2 Service

27 Jul 1940: Involvement Private, VX47978
27 Jul 1940: Enlisted Caulfield, Victoria
27 Jul 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, VX47978, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion
28 Nov 1945: Discharged
28 Nov 1945: Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, VX47978, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion
Date unknown: Involvement

My Favourite Stories from Dad

Around the depression times Vivian had the whole family living in a tin hut on the Murray River bank using a hessian bag for a front door. My family would hunt rabbits and catch fish to sell and to eat, to keep the wolf from the door.

My pop signed up with his brother Charlie for King and Country, first training at Caulfield, Victoria, before being shipped off to Singapore. There he was taken prisoner when Singapore fell to the Japanese. He was first held in Changi before being marched to work on the Burma Railway.

Viv (as we called him) returned home at the war's end weighing just 42 kg's (his height about 5' 9"). He was under-nourished and ill from the conditions that he and his mates were forced to work under. Pop did not say much at all about what was done to him and his mates or what he had seen, but one thing he WOULD say when asked about what happened over there was; "I am one of the lucky ones - because I came home."

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Biography

Vivian (my pop) was a jockey by profession and he also fished professionally along the Murray River, from Morgan S.A., to Euston N.S.W. He married Jean and they had 6 children. 

Final  Resting  Place:  Nichols  Point  Cemetery,  Karadoc Ave., Nichols  Point, Victoria