Lance Corporal Ronald Banks, 2/10th Field Regiment

Fond are the ties that are broken, dear is the friend that is gone ... remembering Ronald Banks

When Lance Corporal Ronald Banks left Sydney in February 1941 bound for Singapore, he was full of hope for his future with his soon to be bride Dorothy Murray, and returning to the company of his friends he referred to as the MOB.  A member of the 69th Light Aid Detachment Australian Army Ordnance Corps, attached to the 2/10th Australian Field Regiment, Ron wrote to his friends of his experiences as a great adventure.

The regiment trained and carried out manoeuvres at Mersing, on the coast north of Singapore, but in February 1942 all plans for the future were put on hold as the Japanese forced the surrender of British and Allied troops on the Peninsula.

Initially imprisoned in Changi Barracks, Ron was one of 3000 Australians of "A Force", and one of the first groups to leave Singapore, for Burma, commanded by Brigadier Varley on 14 May 1942 in the 'Celebes Maru'. After three weeks cramped in the ship's hold they arrived at Victoria Point (Kawthaung), Burma and were marched 25 miles to Tavoy (Dawei) Aerodrome, where they constructed air fields, then moved on to Thanbyuzayat to work on the Burma side of the Burma Thailand railway. After the railway was completed in October 1943 the survivors of 'A Force' were held in No 3. Branch Thai War Prisoners Camp. Nike, Thailand.

On 15 December 1944 surviving members of 'A Force' were rounded up, including Ron Banks, and marched to Singapore harbour to board the 'Awa Maru' destined for Japan. 525 British, American and Australian POWs waited 11 days in the holds of the vessel in searing heat, until the remaining ships of the convoy were ready to depart. They finally sailed on Boxing Day, calling at Saigon, hugging the coast lines along the way to avoid attack from US forces; and on 15 January 1945 were put ashore at Moji in northern Kyushu, where it was mid-winter and snowing.

Here 150 of the group were trucked to Camp 24-B Senryu Emukae, Fukuoka, just 25 miles from Nagasaki, to work in the Sumitoma Coal Mine supplementing the usual Japanese workers. Three Australians died at the Camp soon after arrival, including Ronald Banks who is recorded as dying of acute enteritis and pneumonia on 26 January 1945.

In a letter written by his mother Florence Banks to his friend Bob Dunning in November 1945 she described her deep grief at his passing, but also her heartfelt thanks for the small kindnesses made by his comrades ... who carried him to hospital, and who thought to retrieve his personal items of wallet, photos and paybook from his coffin before he was cremated ... they were returned to her.

Ron's ashes were later interred in the Yokahama War Cemetery. A memorial plaque was established in April 2004 by former prisoners Neil MacPherson and Owen Heron, to remember the 267 Allied POW's who worked at the Senryu Coal Mine and the 17 British and 3 Australian POW's who perished there.

In October 1945 a number of tributes were placed in the Brisbane newspapers including this from his friends:

A proud and loving tribute to the memory of our dear friend. Fond are the ties that are broken, Dear is the friend who has gone. In memory we will always keep him, As long as the years roll on.

May Banks QFX57972, sister to Ronald enlisted with the AMWAS and served in a number of capacities with the 2/2 Australian General Hospital, 112 Brisbane Military Hospital, rising to the rank of Corporal.

Five letters and a greeting card, written by Ron Banks to his friend Bob Dunning, dated between October 1940 and December 1941 as well as his mother's letter, can be viewed at the State Library of Queensland upon request.

View the collection ...

M 578, Robert Dunning papers

• Collection Guide

Read more ...

• Service record: Banks, Ronald, QX8060
• WX16572 Neil Ormiston Macpherson, 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion
• Red Cross POW index card  #25980
• Fukuoka No.24 Branch Camp (Senryu Coal Mine)
• Roger Mansell, POW Index, Fukuoka 24-B
• Prisoners of the Japanese, Burma-Thailand Railway / Australian War Memorial
• 2/10th Field Regiment / Australian War Memorial
• AWM54 554/2 - 8th Division in Captivity - "A Force" (Burma)
• Map of Burma Thailand Railway, A Force Camps
• 'Prisoners of War. Australians under Nippon' by Hank Nelson. Published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1985