PATERSON, James Laidlaw
| Service Number: | WX7016 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 30 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Aberdeen, Scotland, 5 April 1916 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | Exhaustion, At sea (Nino Bixio), Mediterranean Sea, 26 August 1942, aged 26 years |
| Cemetery: |
El Alamein War Cemetery Alamein Memorial, Column 92, El Alamein, Marsa Matruh, Egypt |
| Memorials: | Alamein Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Fremantle West Australian Trustee Executor Agency Co. Ltd. Roll of Honour WW2 |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement Lance Corporal, WX7016 | |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Lance Corporal, WX7016, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
James was the son of James and Anna, who married in Scotland in 1915. His father - also James Laidlaw Paterson - served in the British Army (10288). He was a Company Sergeant Major, 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders. He was killed in action in France on 27 September 1918.
James jnr's mother Anna remarried in 1923 in Victoria, Australia to Herbert William BEAVER. Tragically, Herbert died aged 52 in Norseman Hospital WA in 1931, following a railway accident (see https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/94949737).
James married in 1940 to Dorothy Adele PERRY and they lived in South Perth. He was a Scoutmaster in West Perth.
James was one of 41 Australian POWs killed when the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. Of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident, four died later by execution. Most of the Australian casualties were from the 2/28th Infantry Battalion.
James had a half-sister named Anna Bonnie (known as Bonnie). His mother, also Anna, died in 1957.
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