Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Robert Francis Holmes

Robert was North Melbourne born on the 28th October 1919 to Irene and Francis Robert Stanley Holmes. Francis, a farmer, enlisted in the Militia in December of 1938, aged 40. Two years later, Robert was to do the same.

Aged 20, Robert married Noel Olive Renfree in 1940, prior to enlisting on the 14th June as a serving member of 13/19, Citizen Military Force. At that stage he worked as a farm labourer, living in the Paynesville coastal area of Gippsland. With the declaration of WWII Robert enlisted at Caulfield, on the 29th November 1940 with the rank of Corporal becoming VX29172. He and Noel welcomed their first child, a daughter, Patricia Noel Holmes on the 20th January 1940. However, by July of the following year he was aboard the Troopship Marnix, destined for Malaya and was never to see his daughter grow up or any other of his family again.

Once in Singapore, Robert quickly rose through the ranks, becoming Corporal in August, 1941 then the following month L/Sergeant and by December was appointed Acting Sergeant.

The bright future of this young man was then defined by what came to be known as the Battle of Muar Road from the 14th – 22nd January 1942 with his battalion making their last stand on Gemensah Bridge. One Platoon, under the leadership of Lieut Carr, charged a Japanese machine gun emplacement with bayonets fixed and guns blazing, singing "Waltzing Matilda". That entire group was slaughtered. History, with hindsight, now views this battle as a complete failure totally lacking intelligence reports, resulting in only 130 from the 2/29th Battalion making it back to British lines before Singapore surrendered. While officially described as ‘missing’ in March, from 15th February, 1942 Robert was a prisoner of the Japanese and taken to Changi Prison. There he became one of the 1494 B Force Prisoners of War taken to Sadakan Camp. Of these, 79 men and 4 officers of his Battalion were with him. They travelled on a tramp ship, Ubi Maru which took 12 days to travel from Changi to arrive at Sandakan Harbour in Borneo on July 18th 1942, just two years after he enlisted and not quite 22 years old but already holding the rank of Acting Sergeant. Conditions were horrific, cruel and barbaric with officers frequently receiving the most severe brutality; arguably the worst atrocities were committed against Australian prisoners of war.

Knowing the Allieds had won the war, Japanese leaders chose to destroy all surviving prisoners and thus evidence of the barbarism of the camp. Beginning on May 29th, those prisoners who could be raised from their beds in the Sandakan compound were sent out in parties of 50, ostensibly to be forced to walk 125 miles across the mountains to Ranau, in what was later to be called the infamous Sandakan Death March. Each morning, those too weak to continue were told to remain behind. Most knew what their fate would be and would farewell their mates, knowing that once the ‘march’ was underway, they would be machine gunned by the Japanese.Almost 2,400 men were force marched to their deaths; only six were to survive. 

Robert survived for 14 days. Aged 24 he died on the 12th June 1945 somewhere in Borneo of ‘illness’.

By September 1945 details were being reported back in Australia. At Sandakan Camp, no Australians remained alive although of the graves found in the compound, some were marked with names and numbers. Horrified, Australians and the few survivors demanded Japanese war criminals in Borneo be brought to swift justice. The Melbourne Argus in September 1945 reported on the horror the men faced: "After two days' struggle on the difficult trail he took count of his men and found that six already had been lost. After that they died at the rate of six each day in his party. Only 142 Australians reached Ranau on June 26. Each morning on the march those too weak to continue were told to remain behind. "They knew then it was all up, and would say, 'So long,', mate,' " said WO Stricpewich. When the others had got under way the Japanese would machinegun their victims."

On the 6th April 1946 the two Japanese Captains responsible for the most heinous crimes and "undoubtedly the greatest mass murder of Australians ever committed," were executed at Rabaul.

Robert is remembered on the Labuan Memorial in Malaysia and at the Canberra Australian War Memorial. He was posthumously awarded the 1939/45 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal and a scroll.

We will continue to Remember Him.

Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133 2/48th