Gilbert Lawrence Cottle FIELD

FIELD, Gilbert Lawrence Cottle

Service Number: WX7360
Enlisted: 6 August 1940
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: Not yet discovered
Born: Albany, Western Australia , 23 January 1904
Home Town: Albany, Albany, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Storekeeper
Died: Illness whilst a prisoner of the Japanese , Borneo, 1 June 1945, aged 41 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Labuan Memorial, Labuan, Malaysia
Memorials: Albany War Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Boyup Brook Sandakan Prisoner of War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939: Involvement Sapper, WX7360
6 Aug 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX7360

Help us honour Gilbert Lawrence Cottle Field's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Robert Wight

WX7360 Sapper Gilbert Lawrence Cottle Field, 2/6th Field Park Company, Royal Australian Engineers was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force.

The 1494 POW's that made up B Force, were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942. Sapper Field, aged 41, died as a prisoner of the Japanese on 1 June 1945.

He was the son of Henry William and Celia Annie Field, and the husband of Florence Alice Field, of Albany, WA.

He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 6. 

Source: AWM

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