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COOMBS, Charlie
Personal Details
| Service Number: | QX11042 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 June 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/11th Field Company / Squadron RAE |
| Born: | Dungog, New South Wales, Australia , 13 September 1900 |
| Home Town: | Allora, Southern Downs, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Patrolman - Main Roads |
| Died: | Illness, Ambon, Netherlands East Indies, 20 December 1943, aged 43 years |
| Cemetery: |
Ambon War Cemetery, Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia CWGC Grave No: Plot 23. Row C. Grave 13. Inscription: "HIS DUTY NOBLY DONE. FONDLY REMEMBERED". |
| Memorials: | Allora WW2 Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Warwick War Memorial |
Service History
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement Sapper, QX11042 | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Jun 1940: | Enlisted | |
| 20 Jun 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, QX11042 | |
| 17 Feb 1942: | Imprisoned Ambon, Died at Tan Toey (Tantui) P.O.W. Camp, Ambon Island whilst a prisoner of the Japanese Occupation Force. Nature of death recorded as dysentery. | |
| 20 Dec 1943: | Discharged | |
| 20 Dec 1943: | Involvement Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, 2nd/11th Field Company / Squadron RAE, Ambon, Member of Gull Force (Ambon). |
Personal Stories
Charlie Coombs
Charlie was born in Dungog (NSW), in 1900. As a young man he went to Allora (QLD) and worked as a bridge carpenter for the Main Roads Department. He boarded at the Princess of Wales Hotel in Allora. In 1923 he married forty-year-old widow Ellen Florence (Clarke) White and became a step-father to her four children.
Ellen Florence Clarke was born 1883, the eldest child of Joseph and Sarah Eleanor Clarke (nee Gordon). She married Ernest George White in 1908. Ernest passed away in 1917 at the age on 34. Ellen worked at her mother’s Princess of Wales Hotel, where she met up with Charlie Coombs.
Submitted 12 December 2025 by Mike Larsen
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