Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Michael Fogarty was born at Redfern, New South Wales, in 1901, the son of John and Josephine. He was a 39 year old single labourer living in Bondi when he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force at Paddington on 2 July 1940. Initially allocated to the 2/19th Battalion, after training he embarked with the battalion on 2 February 1941 for Singapore, and disembarked there on 18 February. He was detached from the 2/19th Battalion to the headquarters defence platoon for the 22nd Infantry Brigade in April, and formally posted to the same platoon in October.

After a stint in hospital in November he was transferred to the Australian Army Ordnance Corps, responsible for storage and preparation of supplies and equipment, and in December was detached to the 2/9th Field Ambulance, a first line medical unit supporting the units that were soon fighting the Japanese as they landed in Malaya and began fighting their way south towards Singapore. Along with thousands of other members of the Australian 8th Division, Michael was captured at the fall of Singapore on 16 February 1942, and became a prisoner of war. In July, Michael was among the 1,494 Allied POWs that made up B Force, a group of 8th Division troops which was transported to Sandakan on the eastern coast of Japanese-occupied North Borneo on the tramp steamer Ubi Maru, and arrived at Sandakan on 18 July. Over 2,000 Allied POWs were held at Sandakan camp, and they were employed in airfield construction. He was officially posted as missing until March 1943 when he was reported as a prisoner of war in Borneo.

Michael died of acute colitis at the Sandakan POW camp, aged 43. He was initially buried near the camp, but after the war the Australian Army Graves Service considered the area to be too prone to flooding for a permanent cemetery, so disinterred all the remains and reinterred them at Labuan War Cemetery. Unlike many of the dead at Labuan, Michael’s grave is known and marked with his name and details.