John Alfred (Jack) PRICE

PRICE, John Alfred

Service Number: WX7979
Enlisted: 13 August 1940
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion
Born: Sawyers Valley, Western Australia, 16 June 1902
Home Town: Not yet discovered
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: tractor driver
Died: Accidental, At sea (Nino Bixio), Mediterranean Sea, 17 August 1942, aged 40 years
Cemetery: El Alamein War Cemetery
Alamein Memorial, Column 94, Egypt
Memorials: Alamein Memorial (El Alamein), 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, WX7979
13 Aug 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX7979, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion

Help us honour John Alfred Price's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin

John was the third of seven children. The family settled in Cunderdin WA. His father, known as James, died in 1911 at age 39, while carting hay (see https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/256381865). 

John's mother Agnes remarried in 1913 to Paulinus James DONOVAN, known as Jim. She died in 1930.

All four of John's brothers enlisted in WWII - all made it home.

John 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.

John is also memorialised at Cunderdin Cemetery, where several members of his family are interred.

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