HUGGINS, John Henry
| Service Number: | QX11594 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 27 March 1941, Ayr, Queensland |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ayr, Queensland, Australia , 28 February 1920 |
| Home Town: | Ayr, Burdekin, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Postal employee |
| Died: | Illness (war service related), Ayr, Queensland, Australia , 27 November 1958, aged 38 years |
| Cemetery: |
Ayr Cemetery, Queensland |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 27 Mar 1941: | Enlisted Private, QX11594, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion, Ayr, Queensland | |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar 1941: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, QX11594, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion | |
| 28 Mar 1941: | Involvement Private, QX11594, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion, Malaya/Singapore | |
| 15 Feb 1942: | Imprisoned Malaya/Singapore | |
| 8 Feb 1946: | Discharged Private, QX11594, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion | |
| 8 Feb 1946: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, QX11594, 2nd/29th Infantry Battalion |
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"Jack was described as a “tall, handsome man, an excellent football player, a lifesaver, and the first Aboriginal man to work in the Ayr Post Office.”Jack enlisted in Ayr, and was sent directly to Burma where he was caught, and taken as a prisoner of war on Burma/Thailand Railway.
He was one of almost 14,792 Australian servicemen and women captured by the Japanese with the fall of Singapore. Thankfully he was not in the one-third of them who would die in captivity. His workforce was assembled in Changi before being sent to slave on the railway. 9,500 Australians worked on the railway and nearly 7,000 survived to tell the story.
Jackie recalls the saddest moment of his life, when he arrived in Townsville after returning from the War. He was met by his best mate Loftus “Bluie” Dunne who retold the story to Jackie many years later “as Jack got off the train, weak and tired, he scanned around for his Mother and wondered why she had not written to him for a few months. Bluie then told him the tragic news; that she had died three months earlier. He naturally collapsed in Bluie’s arms.” Devastatingly John Henry Huggins I, Jack’s dad, had also passed away while he was serving his country..." - READ MORE LINK (charityspam.com)
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