Private Mick Johnston
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
On Anzac Day (25th April) and Remembrance Day (11th November) each year, we reflect on those brave men and women who gave there lives in the defense of our country. We also remember those who have gone to war, returned, but suffered the physical and mental anguish of their duty.
In 2009, while undertaking family history research, I found a forgotten member of the family who died in World War II while working as a POW on the Burma-Thailand Railway.
Allen Maxwell Johnston was a Proserpine (Queensland) boy and grew up working in the local sugar cane fields during the crushing seasons. In the off-seasons, he used his mechanical ability to work on tractors and trucks in preparation for the next crushing season.
In 1940, when the spread of the Japanese was gaining momentum, Allen (known as Mick) enlisted into the army. After completing his basic training in November of the same year and due to his mechanical ability, Mick was assigned to No 2 Company of the Australian Army Service Corp at Enoggera. His unit was part of the 27th Brigade of the 8th Division, and in August 1941 he was shipped out to Singapore becoming part of the fifteen thousand strong Australian contingent on the Island.
In December, the Japanese invaded Malaya in their bid to capture Singapore. As a driver and mechanic, Mick found himself in the thick of it. His unit provided transport to the ‘front’ for troops and supplies. Air attacks were a constant threat. Then, as the Australians and other allies were forced to fall back to Singapore, provided troop transport and salvaging of ammunitions.
Having survived the Fall of Singapore, Mick became a prisoner of war. In March 1943, after 13 months of captivity, he was sent to Thailand as part of V Battalion, D Force to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway. Mick worked from camps at Kinsaiyok, Prang Kasi and Hindat.
Like all other camps along the railway, work was hard, food was meagre and the POW’s were expected to work long hours and most experienced the harsh brutality of the Japanese. After 7 months of work, Mick came down with dysentery and was transferred to a Dutch POW hospital at Kui Yae. Due to lack of adequate medicines and suitable food, Mick succumbed to his illness and died on the 31st October 1943.
He was buried in a makeshift cemetery at Kui Yae and after the war, his remains were recovered (as was the case with all POW’s who died along the railway) and he was reburied in the war cemetery at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Today, nothing remains of the cemetery at Kui Yae. Only a few coconut trees that stand in tribute to those who were once buried there.
Burma-Thailand Railway (Click to enlarge)
Kui Yea POW Cemetery
Kui Yea POW Cemetery (today)
Mick’s final resting place (Kanchanaburi War Cemetery) - LEST WE FORGET