Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ron was the fifth of ten siblings who grew up in Gloucester NSW. He had wanted to join the army in 1941, when he was 18, but his mother refused to sign his papers as there were already four of Ron's older siblings serving. Ron would spend part of his early service in Liverpool before being sent to Cowra POW camp. In the early hours of 5 August 1944 he was awoken in the Cowra camp by the beginning of the Japanese prisoner breakout. Ron rose and blew reveille. Later, he and a number of other men from Cowra were sent to Lae, in PNG. While they were stationed there a Japanese medic informed the guards of a planned prisoner breakout, which was averted by separating some from the main body of prisoners. A number of Australians had picked some Japanese so they let prisoners think they understood more Japanese language than first assumed. This ruse was so that the Japanese medic would avoid reprisal from fellow prisoners. One of the prisoners in the camp hospital was a Japanese officer, who had been wounded during a suicide attack against Australian troops. During his recovery this officer wrote a 'poem' to Ron; an emotional piece thanking the Australians for the unexpected kindness and care. Ron would return to Sydney aboard HMAS Kanimbla in 1946; his future brother-in-law was a naval officer serving aboard the Kanimbla. Ron moved to Sydney where he met and married Barbara Johnston in 1954. Together they would return to Cowra regularly, to attend the commemorations of anniversary of the August 1944 breakout, later becoming part of the Cowra Breakout Association. In the late 1990s during a visit to Cowra's commemoration Barbara passed a copy of the poem by the Japanese officer in Lae to a Japanese journalist at Cowra, in the hope that it could be fully translated. Shortly afterwards the ex-Japanese officer wrote to Ron and a short personal correspondence took place, until the officer's death of old age. Ron's voice has been recorded and is now part of an audio presentation on a reconstructed guard tower overlooking the original Cowra POW camp. Ronald Ferguson died in 2018 five days short of his 95th birthday. He was survived by his wife and their three children and five grandchildren. Barbara died almost 12 months to the day after Ron.