Neil Gilbert LEARY

Neil Gilbert LEARY Update Details

If you confirm that you want to proceed with the update, this record will be locked for editing by all other users until you have finished. You will have 7 days to complete your changes before they will be automatically submitted.

Do you want to proceed?

Service Number:	VX31766
Enlisted:	12 June 1940
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	2nd/21st Infantry Battalion
Born:	Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 4 June 1912
Home Town:	Geelong West, Greater Geelong, Victoria
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Bag Store Attendant
Died:	Executed by the Japanese , Ambon, Netherlands East Indies, 22 November 1942, aged 30 years
Cemetery:	Ambon War Cemetery, Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia Burial reference: - Plot 21. Row B. Collective Grave 5-14. Personal Inscription: - "DUTY NOBLY DONE...EVER REMEMBERED". Private Neil Leary was buried in a common grave with 12 other personnel which made individual identification impossible. Their bodies were later exhumed and reburied in a collective (group) grave at Ambon War Cemetery on 12th December 1945.
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

3 Sep 1939:	Involvement Private, VX31766
12 Jun 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, VX31766
12 Jun 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion, Royal Park, Victoria and assigned to 2/21 Australian Infantry Battalion intake.
17 Feb 1942:	Imprisoned Malaya/Singapore, Murdered by Japanese Imperial Forces, whilst their prisoner.
22 Nov 1942:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion, Murdered by elements of Japanese Imperial Forces.

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

Parents: - Harold James Leary and Ruby Olive Gilbert married 1910 in Victoria.

Wife: - Ruby May Waters married 1935 in Geelong, Victoria.