Norman Leslie John Morgan (1915-1945)
Personal details
Gender:
Male
Notes:
Norman was born to John Morgan (posthumously) and Maud Morgan in Carlton in 1915, three and a half weeks after his father's death. Norman (Service Number VX34894, 2/29th Australian Infantry Battalion) served in the second world war and died in Borneo, of 'illness', in 1945.
Birth
Date:
12 June 1915
References:
Sandakan
Date:
1942
Notes:
Private Norman Leslie Morgan VX34894 was among those captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore in February 1942 and died as a Prisoner of War at Sandakan in Borneo in 1945. For more on Sandakan see Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war, an online exhibition published by the Australian War Memorial.
Death
Date:
9 June 1945
Notes:
Most POWs at Sandakan died slowly, of starvation, and were beaten and tortured. 'Toward the end of the war, when the Japanese decided to flee Sandakan, most of the remaining prisoners were marched to their deaths. Those who were strong enough to make it to the end of the trail were executed.' See: Thomas Fuller, 'Borneo Death March /Of 2,700 Prisoners, 6 Survived: An Old Soldier Remembers a Wartime Atrocity', The New York Times, 23 March 1999. Norman Morgan's cause of death was given as 'illness'.
Probate
Date:
14 March 1946
Notes:
Probate of Norman Morgan's will was granted to his sister Mrs Ivy Currie. Record held at PROV: VPRS 28/P3, unit 4253, file 372/296 - ORDER (search on Norman L Morgan).
References:
Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of VX34894 Private Norman Leslie Morgan, 2/29th Battalion, Australian Infantry
P02468.372 Australian War Memorial