Kenneth Gray, 2/10th Field Regiment

By Marg Powell, Specialist Library Technician, Metadata | 30 January 2026

Advanced Dressing Station, Tengah, western Singapore by Murray Griffin, 1943. Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, Accession: ART24478. This field hospital provided care to the Australian 8th Division forces during the Battle for Singapore, it was located near the large airfield at Tengah in western Singapore.

Ken Gray was always a storyteller. As one mate later recalled, they often spoke of ways and means of publishing some of his work after the show was finished - the show being the war.

Friends of Ken Gray's on leave at Seremban

On leave with friends at Seremban, Malacca 1941. Image: 35180, Kenneth Ferguson Gray collection, State Library of Queensland. Pictured are: William 'Lindsay' Savage QX17752 (died Sakata, Japan POW Camp); Harry Borland QX10422 (recovered, Nagoya); John 'Jack' Boyd QX13616 (recovered, Nagoya), William 'Bill' Wrigley QX13862 (recovered, Singapore).

Born in October 1918 to Bertha Cuthbert and Norman Gray, a draftsman, Ken inherited his father’s love of sport and played cricket with the South Brisbane Cricket Club. When Ken left school he took up a position with the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Bank in Brisbane. At the age of twenty-one, he volunteered for service with the Australian Army in June 1940.

Much of Ken Gray’s story survives in the letters and photographs he sent home to his family. They trace his journey from training camps at Caloundra and Redbank, life aboard the Queen Mary bound for Malaya, and finally to active service with his regiment in the months leading up to the Japanese invasion of Singapore.

Scattered throughout his correspondence are poems, observations, and careful notes recording where photographs were taken and which mates stood beside him.

Mates, 2/10th Field Regiment, Malacca, 1941. Ken Gray QX9974 pictured far right.
Image: 35180, Kenneth Ferguson Gray collection, State Library of Queensland

That record ends in February 1942, when Ken - along with more than 15,000 other Australian servicemen and women (mainly from the 8th Division) - was taken prisoner by Imperial Japanese Armed Forces.

Ken’s most enduring story, however, comes not from his own hand but from that of his mate, “Wrigley Bill” [aka William Wrigley] also of the 2/10th Battalion. In December 1945, Bill wrote a long and heartfelt letter to Ken’s father, Norman, describing the last chapter of his son’s life.

Bill Wrigley, together with William 'Lindsay' Savage, Ken Gray, and approx. 300 members of the 2/10th allocated to “A Force” left Changi POW Camp and sailed aboard the Celebes Maru on 15 May 1942, from Singapore to the Burma Peninsula near Tavoy. There, they were forced to construct airfields before being moved to Thanbyuzayat, Burma in September 1942 to then construct the infamous Burma-Thai railway. It was around this time, Ken contracted a pernicious form of dysentery of which he eventually died in July 1943.

In his letter, Bill Wrigley not only offered comfort and reassurance; he also related, firsthand, where they had been imprisoned and the conditions under which they were forced to labour. Although Ken looked worn out, he made no complaints.

Bill marvelled that Ken had begun a novel and was carefully putting aside small articles. Sadly, perhaps because he felt his end was near, Ken destroyed all his papers. Bill then wrote that Ken was buried with dignity and care, remembered as a lovable and loyal friend - one of whom they were all deeply proud.

Kenneth Gray’s death is recorded at Kilo 346 – K69 Mezali POW Construction Camp, in the Burma section of the line, on 17 July 1943. His remains were later recovered by the Allied War Graves Commission and reinterred at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery Burma (Myanmar), where he rests today among his comrades.

Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Myanmar. The village of Thanbyuzayat is 65 km south of the port of Moulmein, and the war cemetery lies at the foot of the hills which separate the Union of Myanmar from Thailand. Image courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Of the 834 officers and men of the 2/10th Field Regiment who became prisoners, 270 died.

To quote further from Bill's letter ...

This is not a sad story; rest assured you have reason to be proud of Ken just as much as we were, who only knew him for such a short space of time. I am writing this also for [William Lindsay] Savage, who died in Japan, he would have endorsed this statement.

Ken's younger brother Allan, enlisted to serve in February 1944, 9 days after he turned 18, and a month before the family was advised that Ken had died as a POW. Allan was posted to North Queensland, North Borneo and Morotai.

Kenneth Gray, 2/10th Field Regiment

Ken Gray was always a storyteller. As one mate later recalled, they often spoke of ways and means of publishing some of his work after the show was finished - the show being the war.

That record ends in February 1942, when Ken - along with more than 15,000 other Australian servicemen and women (mainly from the 8th Division) - was taken prisoner by Imperial Japanese Armed Forces.

In his letter, Bill Wrigley not only offered comfort and reassurance; he also related, firsthand, where they had been imprisoned and the conditions under which they were forced to labour. Although Ken looked worn out, he made no complaints.

To quote further from Bill's letter ...

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