Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Eric Clarence Leadbetter (Service No:QX16479) enlisted in the AIF on 23 July 1940, and was a Transport Driver attached to 1 Coy AASC on 2 February 1941 when he embarked from Sydney for Singapore. Reported missing on 15 February 1942, Private Leadbetter was officially confirmed as a PoW of the Japanese on 30 November 1943. Private Leadbetter worked on the Burma Railway and in coal mines in Nagasaki, Japan - 'He was above ground when the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki' (Courier Mail; 2010). Recovered from the Japanese on 10 September 1945 at Fukuoka, Private Leadbetter embarked from Manila for Sydney on 13 October 1945 on board HMS Formidable, and following hospital treatment, was Discharged on 18 December 1945.

Eric was born in Roma, QLD in 1919, fifth of six children of Charles Leadbetter (b1864 in Toolum, New South Wales) and his second wife Marion Julia Pittuck (nee Amos; b1884 at Mullet Creek via Bundaberg, QLD). Charles worked as a Labourer and Stockman at Charters Towers, Charleville, Augathella and Bogantangum via Emerald. Charles was working in Mungalala via Mitchell when he and Marion married - and settled at Dulbydilla via Mungalala where they raised their family and Charles was a Stockman/Grazier.

Eric worked as a Station Hand at Bonarby via Mungalalla, and following his Discharge from the Army, was a Grazier at Bonarby when in 1948 in Murwillumbah, New South Wales he married Margaret Milne (b1921 in Grafton, New South Wales). Eric and Margaret lived at Bonarby before settling in the early 1950s at Bundilla in Dulbydilla via Mitchell, where they raised their family and Eric was a Grazier. Eric and Margaret retired to Buderim, where Eric died in 2010 and Margaret in 2018.