Neville Edward Hercules CURTIS

CURTIS, Neville Edward Hercules

Service Number: VX42144
Enlisted: 5 July 1940
Last Rank: Corporal
Last Unit: 2nd/22nd Infantry Battalion
Born: Wahrooga, New South Wales, Australia, 1 May 1916
Home Town: Wangaratta, Wangaratta, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Bank Clerk, Bank of New South Wales
Died: Died at sea (Montevideo Maru), South China Sea, 1 July 1942, aged 26 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Commemorated: - Panel 16, Rabaul War Cemetery and Memorial. Also known as Bita Paka War Cemetery.
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Rabaul Memorial, Rabaul Montevideo Maru Memorial, Wangaratta Holy Trinity Cathedral Honour Roll WW2, Wangaratta War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939: Involvement VX42144
5 Jul 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, VX42144, 2nd/22nd Infantry Battalion
1 Jul 1942: Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, VX42144, 2nd/22nd Infantry Battalion, Presumed to have died in the South China Sea, aboard the unmarked Japanese prisoner of war transport vessel, Montevideo Maru, 1st July 1942, when it was sunk by USS Sturgeon.

Help us honour Neville Edward Hercules Curtis's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Dianne Black

Parents: - Hercules George Curtis and Alice Sarah Jackson married 28th May 1910, Lismore, New South Wales.
Wife:--- Jean Robbie married 1940 in Victoria.

Fate:- Corporal Curtis enlisted on 5th July 1940 and served in New Britain. Following the Japanese invasion on 23rd January 1942, (Battle of Rabaul), he was taken prisoner of war (POW) and held at Rabaul. On 22 June 1942, Corporal Curtis was presumed one of an estimated 845 POWs and 209 civilians who embarked from Rabaul aboard the unmarked Japanese transport ship MV Montevideo Maru. The POWs were members of 2/22 Battalion, No. 1 Independent Company, and other units of Lark Force. Civilians included officials of the New Guinea Administration and missionaries. The ship sailed unescorted for Hainan Island. On 1 July 1942 all the prisoners died when the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines.

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