Virtual
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Australia

Andrew was the youngest of three sons of Alexander Cumming Wilson (born 1886 at Tiaro in QLD) and Elizabeth Ann McRobert (born 1892 in Tiaroa, QLD). Alexander and Elizabeth married in 1913 in Maryborough, QLD and lived at Mavisbank (the family farm) in Tiaro, where their sons were raised.

In July 1940 Andrew enlisted in the Army, serving with 2/26 Australian Infantry Battalion as a Lance Corporal and Sergeant (Service No: QX10799). A Red Cross Report (University of Melbourne archives) states that on 17 July 1942 he was 'reported missing, presumably a PoW'; on 21 June 1943 Singapore Radio alleged he was a PoW and on 14 April 1945 the Army advised that he had died whilst a PoW in Thailand (unconfirmed). On 20 September 1945 the Army advised that Andrew was reported alive at Changi Camp. Andrew was captured by the Japanese, and in April 1943 he was with the 'F' Force, ordered by Major General Arimura, to entrain to Bam Pong in Thailand - a journey of four to five days with very little food or water. From there, Andrew was marched 300 km over rough terrain, in torrential rain and under attack from marauding Thais. On arrival at the Thai-Burmese border, the men were housed in roofless huts and sent to work immediately by Japanese engineers on construction of a railway south of Three Pagodas Pass. Conditions were depolorable, with regular beatings by Japanese engineers, junior Japanese Officers of the Malay PoW Administration and Korean guards. The majority of the PoWs suffered from malnutrition, malaria, cholera, typhus, spinal minigitis, diptheria, smallpox, beri beri; jaundice, pleurisy, dysentry and tropical ulcers - there was no medication and the men were dressed mostly in ragged loin cloths and were bootless. Of the 7,000 men who set out from Changi, 3,000 survived. Lieutenant Fukuda (Commander of one of the camps) said 'International Law and the Geneva Convention do not apply if they conflict with the interests of the Japanese Army .... you must remember that you are our prisoners-of-war, that you are in our power, and that under present circumstances these things do not apply', (https//www.cofepow.org.uk - Report of F Force in Thailand).

Andrew's older brothers served in WWII - James Leslie  (Service No: 405103)was KiA when his plane crashed over the ocean near Greece in July 1942. Thomas was a Sergeant (Q267213) in the ACMF. Brother-in-Law William George Drew (Service No: 24534) was in the RAAF and died when his plane crashed over the ocean near New Caledonia.

On his return home, Andrew married Beryl Evelyn Drew (born 1920 in Brisbane, QLD) in 1945. Beryl had been a sheet-metal worker in Townsville, QLD. Andrew and Beryl settled on the family farm - Mavisbank - in Tiaro, and in 1975 moved to Maryborough, QLD where Andrew worked as a Truck Driver. He died in 2010 and Beryl in 2013.