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CURTIS Stanley

Service: Army – 2/42 Australian Transport Platoon
Service number: VX78895
Locality on Enlistment: Birregurra
Duration of Service: 6 Apr 1942 – 17 Jan 1946
Prisoner of War: No
Honours: None for display
Date and Place of Birth: 18 Jun 1918 Forrest
Parents: Thomas Alfred CURTIS and Mary Elizabeth NEWCOMBE
Spouse: Irene Josephine HARWOOD
School/s:
Occupation: Farm Labourer
Date and Place of Death: 26 Aug 1975 Geelong
Place of Burial: Colac Cemetery

NOTES: Japan surrendered on 15 Aug 1945 and on the 27 August the 2nd Australian Prisoner of War Reception Group, which included the 42 Transport Platoon, boarded the MV Duntroon for Singapore and arrived on 13 September to assist in the repatriation of Australian ex-prisoners of war. The group was established at Changi and as few public utilities were operational and with an acute shortage of transport, Lloyd directed that the Australians already in Changi remain accommodated at the prison during the repatriation process. The directive proved unpopular among the ex-prisoners but eventually two reception camps relocated to a residential area two miles (3.2 kilometres) to the east of the prison to receive personnel from the surrounding islands. The last of the outlying prisoners to arrive embarked for Australia on 29 October, by which time 2nd group had recovered and processed 10,955 prisoners in six weeks of operation in Singapore.Bringing them all back home: Prisoner of war contact, recovery and reception units, 1944-45. Bryce Abraham – Australian War Memorial