Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

VX64289 Private Kenneth Leslie “Ken” Rose was residing in Cobram when he enlisted on 6 October 1941 having just turned 21. He was born 15 August 1920, the son of Leslie John and May Victoria Rose, living in Cobram at the time. In December 1930 Ken’s father advertised he was taking over the Cobram Bakery and Ken was working there as a young man just before the war. It was recalled by family that “Ken was able to hold out a baker's peel by the end of its handle, length six feet or more, with one hand”. (A shovel-like tool used by bakers to slide loaves of bread, pizzas, pastries, and other baked goods into and out of an oven.)

Ken was given a big send off one evening during December 1941 which was reported in the Cobram Courier. When he arrived in Melbourne, he was posted to reinforcements to the 2/29th Battalion, and it was part of the 8th Division AIF which was sent to defend Singapore. Ken left Sydney and arrived in Singapore on 26 January 1942.  According to his service file he transferred to the 2/26th Battalion in the chaos of a beseiged Singapore, and though the unit fought desperately against overwhelming Japanese forces, the Island of Singapore was lost, with many units surrendering. Ken Rose was reported as missing from 16 February 1942.

After the surrender the Battalion was concentrated in Changi gaol, where they were used as labour for work parties, first in Singapore and then in other parts of Japan’s conquered territory. Men were sent to Burma and Thailand to work on the railway, and Kenneth was reported to have died of ulcers there on 6 September 1943. He is buried in the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery near Burma, a victim of the notorious Burma-Siam railway. Built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, it was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway.

Ken Rose’s death was not confirmed to his parents until October 1945. Ken had four brothers. Allan Rose, his closest brother, enlisted a few months before Ken in the 2/6th Battalion. He won the Military Medal for courage and devotion to duty in the Wewak region of New Guinea from April to June 1945. Fred Rose enlisted in 1943, having just turned 18 years of age. He served in the same battalion as Allan, the 2/6th Battalion.

From family anecdotes, as Ken’s mum got older, she would talk a little about Ken and often said he should never have gone to war, he was her soft son, the one who, when mum moved from bakery to bakery, would grow her a flower garden at each new location.