Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

George Crago was born at Balmain, NSW, on 28 February 1898, a son of an Australian-born coalminer, William Crago, and his Welsh wife Barbara (nee Jones). In January 1916 George was a single coal miner when he enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force, aged 17, although he stated to the recruiting officer that he was nearly 20 years old. He subsequently saw active service on the Western Front, briefly with the 3rd Battalion, and after further training, with the 1st Light Trench Mortar Battery, supporting the 1st Division. In September 1917 he was wounded in the left leg and hospitalised in the UK. Upon his return to his unit in September 1918, he was promoted to temporary corporal. He was unscathed for the remainder of the war, and reverted to private in January 1919 when he had another hospital stay with an infected elbow and a complication with his wound. He returned to Australia and was discharged in July 1919. The following month George re-enlisted as an acting corporal for AIF special service to return to London as an escort guard for the SS Rio Negro, which was used to repatriate German internees and prisoners of war from Australia to Germany. George returned to Australia in January 1920 and was discharged on Anzac Day that year.

George was married to Agnes, and was working as a barman and living in Smithfield when he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force at Paddington on 25 August 1941, giving his date of birth as 28 February 1902, thereby lowering his age to 39, whereas he was in fact 43 years old. After training at Tamworth, on 10 January 1942 he embarked at Sydney as a reinforcement. The 8th Australian Division was then deployed to Malaya fighting the Japanese. George disembarked at Singapore on 26 January 1942 and was posted to 2/18th Battalion, but his unit withdrew to Singapore in late January and fought desperately as part of the defence of the island, only to be captured on 16 February. George was captured with the rest of his unit and officially posted as missing. He was allocated to B Force, a group of 8th Division troops which was transported to Sandakan on the eastern coast of Japanese-occupied British North Borneo on the tramp steamer Ubi Maru, and arrived at Sandakan on 18 July. Over 2,000 Allied POWs were held at Sandakan camp, and they were employed in airfield construction. In March 1943 he was officially reported held as a prisoner of war in Borneo, and on this day in 1944 he died of malaria and meningitis at the Sandakan camp, aged 46.

His remains were buried at Sandakan, but after the war the Commonwealth War Graves Commission decided that the area was too prone to flooding and exhumed his remains and reburied them at the Labuan War Cemetery, Malaysia. Only a minority of the dead at Labuan have a known grave like George.