George James BELLAMY

BELLAMY, George James

Service Number: QX7564
Enlisted: 25 May 1940, Cairns, Queensland
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/26th Infantry Battalion
Born: Mackay, Queensland, Australia, 5 December 1914
Home Town: Herberton, Atherton Tablelands, Queensland
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Labourer
Died: Died at sea (POW of Japan - Rakuyo Maru), South China Sea, 12 September 1944, aged 29 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Panel 15, Labuan Memorial, Labuan, Malaysia
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Labuan Memorial, Labuan Federal Territory, Malaysia
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World War 2 Service

25 May 1940: Enlisted Private, QX7564, Cairns, Queensland
25 May 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, QX7564, 2nd/26th Infantry Battalion
12 Sep 1944: Involvement Private, QX7564, 2nd/26th Infantry Battalion, Prisoners of War

George James Bellamy POW

Born to George & Mary Bellany of Atherton, Queensland on 5 December 1914, George enlisted in the A.I.F. on 25 May 1940 at Cairns, Queensland.

He was one of several members of 2/26 Battalion chosen as part of "A" Force, which left Singapore in 1942. The majority of "A" Force were never to return to Singapore.

He was assigned to a work party under Lt. Col. George Ramsay of 2/30, which was to be known as Ramsay Force, and slaved on the Mergui - Burma end of the Railway.

On completion of the railway, many members of "A" Force were kept in various POW Camps throughout Thailand, with a majority being sent to Bangkok from where they were selected to go to Japan to work in the mines.

The unmarked Japanese P.O.W. Ship Rakuyo Maru was sunk by a U.S. Submarine on its way to Japan. Very few P.O.W. were rescued.

He is commemorated in Australia at Mackay, Queensland; The Australian War Memorial at Canberra; and the P.O.W. Memorial Wall at Ballarat, Victoria.

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Biography contributed by Daniel Bishop

Father: George James BELLAMY and Mother Mary Ann Burkett (nee WHITE) BELLAMY.