Norman Phillip (Lofty) HOLDMAN

HOLDMAN, Norman Phillip

Service Number: WX7465
Enlisted: 6 August 1940
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion
Born: Cottesloe, WA, 10 October 1910
Home Town: Pickering Brook, Kalamunda, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Transport Worker
Died: Accidental Air Raid by Allies, Thailand, 27 March 1945, aged 34 years
Cemetery: Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
1 L 37, Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939: Involvement Private, WX7465
6 Aug 1940: Enlisted Private, WX7465, 2nd/4th Machine Gun Battalion, Claremont, WA
6 Aug 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX7465

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Biography contributed by Faithe Jones

Son of Hugh Henry and Elizabeth Holdman; husband of Grace Ellen Holdman, of Wembley, Western Australia.

Lofty survived the hellish conditions of working on the Burma-Thailand Railway with Williams Force during the monsoons and speedo. Working conditions were horrific, they had little food and medicine and were at the mercy of their spiteful and sadistic Japanese and Korean guards. Whilst at Kanchanaburi he was selected for Japan (probably Awa Maru Party) in 1945. His work party was directed through Bangkok supposedly to sail to Japan. While working at the go-downs, Bangkok wharves ‘Lofty’ was tragically killed in an Allied Air Raid 27 Mar 1945 aged 34 years.

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