Ray Keith BENNETT

Ray Keith BENNETT Update Details

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BENNETT, Ray Keith

Service Number:	TX1643
Enlisted:	21 April 1938
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion
Born:	Penguin, Tasmania, Australia, 24 December 1919
Home Town:	Burnie, Burnie, Tasmania
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Labourer
Died:	Devonport, Tasmania, Australia, 21 November 1997, aged 77 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Mersey Vale Memorial Park Cemetery, Tasmania
Memorials:	Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

World War 2 Service

21 Apr 1938:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, TX1643
29 May 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, TX1643, 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion
27 Apr 1942:	Imprisoned MiA: 27 April 1942 PoW confirmed: 30 July 1943 (Java)
21 Oct 1945:	Embarked Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, TX1643, 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion, ex Singapore for Melbourne per Circassia en route to Tasmania
6 Feb 1946:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, TX1643

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Private Ray Keith Bennett (Service No:TX1643) enlisted in the AIF on 20 May 1940, having served with the Militia (Private; Service No:234688) in the 12/50 Battalion since 21 April 1938. Private Bennett was attached to 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion when he was reported as MiA in Java on 27 April 1942 and confirmed as a PoW of the Japanese on 30 July 1943. A shortwave message to his wife Thelma was broadcast from Tokio on 17 November 1943 - Private Bennett sent greetings to his family and stated he was well (National Archives Australia). Recovered from the Japanese at Siam on 4 October 1945, Private Bennett embarked from Singapore on 21 October 1945, via Melbourne en route for Tasmania where he was Discharged on 6 February 1946.

Born in 1919 in Penguin Tasmania, Ray married Thelma (b1914 in Gladstone, Tasmania) in 1940 in Burnie, Tasmania. Following his Discharge in 1946, Ray changed his surname to Burke and married Olive Joan Rainbow (b1919 in Pioneer, Tasmania) - Olive served in the RAAF in WWII. Ray and Olve settled in Devonport Tasmania where Ray died in 1997 and Olive in 2006.

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