The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

Adam Brown · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:50 pm Post subject:

There is only one Stewart Menzies listed on the CWGC database. He is a Gunner and listed on the Singapore memorial which ties in with the details on the Roll of Honour.

MENZIES, STEWART
Rank: Gunner
Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery
Unit Text: 9 Coast Regt.
Age: 25
Date of Death: 05/03/1943
Service No: 860616
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 25.
Memorial: SINGAPORE MEMORIAL
Perhaps buried in an unmarked grave in Papua New Guinea

9 Coast Regiment were based in Singapore Fortress in 1941 when the Japanese invaded.

Here is an account of how Gunner Menzies was killed. It was taken from this website

http://www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/stories_rewarding_research.htm

"In early October 1942 the Japanese decided that 600 men from the Royal Artillery units (made up of 126 officers and men from the 35th LAA Regiment 144 Battery plus officers and men from the following RA Regiments: 7th Coast, 9th Coast, 11th Coast, 2nd HAA, 3rd HAA, 5th Searchlight and Hong Kong & Singapore Artillery plus a few men from the RAMC and RASC who had been attached to the RA's) should be moved from the camp in Changi to another camp in JAPAN. The 600 were under the command of Lt. Col John Bassett. The party was taken to Singapore Docks where they boarded a ship believed to be the "Masta Maru" and endured horrendous conditions. Many men were sick at this time and Battery Sgt Major Lambourne of the 11th Coast Regiment died from dysentery. On the journey, it was noticed that the ship was definitely NOT heading for Japan but was heading south. On 5 November the ship docked at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea where the men were unloaded and marched along dusty tracks ankle deep with volcanic ash despite many being without footwear. During this period the men were made to work in the tropical sun with many beatings.

At the end of November the prisoners were assembled and the fittest 517 were told that they were to be taken to build an airfield for the Japanese. 82 men did not to go with the party as they were not deemed fit enough - ONLY 18 OF THE ORIGINAL 600 SURVIVED TO RETURN TO THE UK - THESE BEING AMONG THE GROUP THAT DID NOT GO ON TO BALLALE. The 517 were taken by another hell ship on the two day journey to the small island of Ballale which is approximately 4 miles in diameter to build an air strip. In time, probably on completion of the air strip and the news being received by the Japanese that the Allies were closing in, orders were given that "PRISONERS OF WAR WERE TO BE DISPOSED OF BY WHATEVER MEANS WAS AVAILABLE". Accordingly, on 5 March 1943, those who were still alive (some having died of illness and others as a result of Allied bombing as the Japanese had not allowed the prisoners to dig trenches to take cover) were massacred in cold blood and not one of those taken to Ballale survived.

It was only through the few natives who lived on the island and who had witnessed the events that this story was able to be recorded by the Australian Forces who re-occupied the island some time later. In 1946 the remains of 438 of these British servicemen were recovered on Ballale and were finally interred in graves in the Bomana Commonwealth War Cemetery at Port Moresby where they are tended by the Australian War Graves Commission".

Here are the cemetery details where he may be buried

Cemetery: PORT MORESBY (BOMANA) WAR CEMETERY
Country: Papua New Guinea

Location Information: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery lies approximately 19 kilometres north of Port Moresby on the road to Nine Mile, and is approached from the main road by a short side road called Pilgrims Way.

Historical Information: After the Japanese landed at Lae and Salamaua in March 1942, Port Moresby became their chief objective. They decided to attack by sea, and assembled an amphibious expedition for the purpose, which set out early in May, but they were intercepted and heavily defeated by American air and naval forces in the Coral Sea, and what remained of the Japanese expedition returned to Rabaul. After this defeat they decided to advance on Port Moresby overland and the attack was launched from Buna and Gona in September 1942. Early in 1942, and almost without resistance, the Japanese established a considerable force and developed a useful base on Bougainville, the largest and most northerly of the Solomon Islands. This they held until Americans and Australians began offensive operations towards the end of 1943, when Bougainville was the only one of these islands remaining in Japanese hands. By August 1945, when the Japanese surrendered, most of the island had been recovered. Those who died in the fighting in Papua and Bougainville are buried in PORT MORESBY (BOMANA) WAR CEMETERY, their graves brought in by the Australian Army Graves Service from burial grounds in the areas where the fighting had taken place. The unidentified soldiers of the United Kingdom forces were all from the Royal Artillery, captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore; they died in captivity and were buried on the island of Bailale in the Solomons. These men were later re-buried in a temporary war cemetery at Torokina on Bougainville Island before being transferred to their permanent resting place at Port Moresby. The cemetery contains 3,818 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 702 of them unidentified. There is also 1 Non war and 1 Dutch Foreign National burials here. The PORT MORESBY MEMORIAL stands behind the cemetery and commemorates almost 750 men of the Australian Army (including Papua and New Guinea local forces), the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in the operations in Papua and who have no known graves. Men of the Royal Australian Navy who died in the south-west Pacific region, and have no known grave but the sea, are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in England, along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and of other Commonwealth Naval Forces. Bougainville casualties who have no known graves are commemorated on a memorial at Suva, Fiji.

DelBoy · Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 3:31 pm Post subject:

Jean McFarlane, Sergt. W.A.A.F.
Elizabeth McLaren, Pte. A.T.S.
Hilda Scobie, W.R.N.S.
Jean Scobie, W.R.N.S.
Helen Seath, A.T.S.
Margaret Seath, R.C.W.A.F
Ian Black, Pte. R.E.
William Burns, A.C.1. R.A.F.
Peter Hogg, A.B. R. Navy
Peter McFarlane, Sapper. 1 Airborne Div.
Duncan Meldrum, Pte. R.A.S.C.
Harry Meldrum, Corp. R.A.F.
* Stewart Menzies, Pte. Artillery
Daniel Murray, Corp. R.A.S.C.
Charles Rattray, L.Corp. R.E.M.E.
Archie Seath, A.C.1. R.A.F.
George Slade, Pte. Black Watch
Andrew Speed, Scots Guards
David Stein, D.S.M. (Distinguished Service Medal) A.B. R. Navy
Robert Stein, A.B. R. Navy
Robert Ewan, Pte. Roy.Scots.Fus.

* Died a prisoner of war in Japanese hands.

stuartn · Joined: 13 Dec 2016 Posts: 2551

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