LEST WE FORGET
Leading Aircraftman Frank Richard TAYLOR
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
RAF Service No: 976583 (RAFVR)
Born: Location, Date unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: Date unavailable
Unit: No. 4 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit (RAF), Seletar, Malaya
Died: Illness: (Prisoner of War, at sea in transit on the Maros Maru), 20 September 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Patrick J. and Kathleen McDonald Taylor, of Belmont, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Column 439, Singapore Memorial, Singapore
Leading Aircraftman Taylor was taken prisoner and held in Java, then in the Moluccas (Ambon). On 17 September 1944 and ahead of the advancing Australian and US Forces, the Japanese removed allied prisoners from Ambon in the 600 ton former Dutch ship renamed the Maros Maru. Of the 650 allied prisoners embarked on 17 September 1944, 325 died enroute in atrocious conditions before the ship reached Surabaya.
References:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
RAF Commands Website
Bibliography:
The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes, Lord Russell of Liverpool, Various Editions