THISTLETHWAITE, Leonard King
| Service Number: | WX11375 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 5 April 1941, Claremont, WA |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Claremont, Western Australia, Australia , 8 January 1907 |
| Home Town: | Konnongorring, Goomalling, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Farm Labourer |
| Died: | Injuries, Thailand, 17 February 1945, aged 38 years |
| Cemetery: |
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery 1 G 47, |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Goomalling Drinking Fountain Memorial, Goomalling War Memorial Swimming Pool, Wongan Hills War Memorial |
Biography contributed by Daryl Jones
Son of Leonard Atkinson Thistlethwaite and Lusitand Maude Thistlethwaite; husband of Lenna Mary Thistlethwaite, of North Perth, Western Australia.
HIS DUTY FEARLESSLY AND WELL DONE ALWAYS REMEMBERED
The news has been received in Konnongorring with sad regret that both Pte. King Thistlethwaite and Pte. Reuben Goodwin will not be coming home again. Both lost their lives while prisoners of war in Japanese hands, King having died of illness in Thailand in February of this year and Reuben in Siam in 1944, we are told. Both had many friends in and around Konno, who will revere the memory of these young men who died because of a brutish enemy.
VALE—King Thistlethwaite and Reuben Goodwin
"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for another.''
The tragic news that these two local soldiers had perished in Japanese hands after three years and two and a half years, respectively, of captivity, has left all Konnongorring with a sense of deep loss. King had been with us many years, gave up a good home, security and a great future to do his duty to King and Country. Answering the call in 1941, he was a volunteer and landed on Singapore just at its fall. His wife played her part in the A.W.A.S., his sister in the W.R.A.N.S. and a brother-in-law in the army, truly a family which has earned our gratitude and which, had the war finished a bare six months earlier, would have been able to welcome home a husband, soN and brother of whom they were justly proud.
What these men suffered we will never know; what they were told had happened to their homeland and their loved ones still in Australia. To be told that they had been disowned by their country, that their country was occupied, would be worse than the illtreatment they doubtless received. They saw their duty, hesitated not, as some of us did, paid their rent on earth with their lives and have left names which will never grow dim in our living memories. They were good citizens, good sports and good Australians. "They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn."
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