George Bradshaw MORRISS

George Bradshaw MORRISS Update Details

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MORRISS, George Bradshaw

Service Number:	23670
Enlisted:	23 October 1939
Last Rank:	Able Seaman
Last Unit:	HMAS Perth (I) D29 WW2
Born:	Frankston, Victoria, Australia, 20 October 1922
Home Town:	Frankston, Victoria
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Newsboy
Died:	Illness, Borneo, 29 May 1945, aged 22 years
Cemetery:	Labuan War Cemetery Spec. Memorial. 20. D. 1.
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Bendigo Sandakan Prisoner of War Memorial, East Fremantle HMAS Perth (I) Memorial

World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939:	Involvement Able Seaman, 23670, HMAS Perth (I) D29 WW2
23 Oct 1939:	Enlisted Royal Australian Navy, Able Seaman, 23670
1 Mar 1942:	Imprisoned Malaya/Singapore, PoW of Japanese following sinking of HMAS Perth at St Nicholas Point, Western Java – captured and sent to Kuching where he joined E Force

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Able Seaman George Bradshaw Morriss (Service No:23670) enlisted in the RAN on 23 October 1939 as an Ordinary Seaman on HMAS Cerberus. Promoted to Able Seaman on 20 September 1941, he served on HMAS Perth, and was captured by the Japanese on 1 March 1942 following the sinking of HMAS Perth at St Nicholas Point in Western Java. AB Morriss was sent to Kuching, where he joined E Force. He was confirmed by the International Red Cross as a Japanese PoW (No:1858) on 9 August 1943 (one of two members of the RAN interned at Sandakan) and died (according to the Japanese) of Malaria on 29 May 1945. Able Seaman Morriss was initially buried in a trench at the gates to Sandakan, and until 2001 was in Grave No:20D1 at Labuan Cemetery, marked 'Unknown Soldier'. Following his identification, in 2001 this changed to 'AB George Bradshaw Morris' (Trove; Royal Australian Navy News; 2001; p3).

George was born in Frankston, Victoria in 1922, only child of Myrtle Morriss (b1902 in Melbourne, Victoria). Myrtle lived and worked in Shepparton and Mooroopna, where she died in the Typhoid Epidemic in 1929. George was raised in Frankston by his Grandparents., and was working as a Newsboy in 1939 when he enlisted in the RAN.

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