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Winning Premier's ANZAC SPIRIT School Prize biography by Mehar Bains, St Ignatius College, Adelaide. Mehar's entry to the competition is attached. 

Born on the 13th of January 1912, Hera-Singh was born and grew up almost 150 kilometres south of Adelaide in the Coorong town of Meningie - the South Australian costal experience - with almost a dozen older and younger siblings. Hera-Singh grew up in that culture rarely discussed or acknowledged at the time; he was of half-Indian, half-British descent, and cross checked with Hera-Singh’s great nephew, Garry Hera-Singh, who described him as ‘very dark-skinned’(1). It should be noted that the White Australia policy was still intact during much of Hera-Singh’s life – racial prejudices and names such as ‘half caste’ were targeted at any with differentiating features during this period of Australian history.

Syrian Campaign and Ethnic Significance in War

Hera-Singh enlisted into the armed forces on the 5th of August 19402, at the age of 28 and a half years, with recorded experience as a labourer. Trained as a machine gun operator, he embarked to the Middle East with the 2/3rd Machine Gun.

Upon arrival in Palestine, both Hera-Singh and the Battalion were thrust into action: the Syrian campaign, one of the lesser acknowledged campaigns involving Australian troops, sought to protect Syrian and Lebanese territory from German occupation after the fall of France in the same year. Divisive strategy involving an Indian Brigade and a Free French Force was met with equal motivation by the underestimated Vichy French, and at the heart of this was the ignited spirit of the soldier, with the Battalion’s first casualties reported on the 14th of June 1941. The remainder of the year was spent in Syria after an armistice was put forward by the Vichy French and subsequently signed. Front-line soldiers such as Hera-Singh and his comrades were commended at the time by the British Secretary of State for War.

In again noting Hera-Singh’s direct lineage to his Punjabi roots, his dark-skinned appearance, and ethnic name, it is easy to assume his isolation from the rest of his soldiers – but soldier accounts (2) show this not to be the case. History has lost a key aspect of the cross-cultural fight for Western freedom; the extraordinary levels of camaraderie and dedication displayed by South Asian soldiers in bolstering a fight for a country actively discriminating against their people back home. Processes of assimilation for immigrants were still intact in 1940s Australia and while the Indian population were still able to enlist with proof of any European ancestry, they were still not fully considered citizens or protected on basis of racial discrimination under federal Australian law.

Role as a Cook and the Fight Against the Japanese

The 18th of February 1942 saw Hera-Singh and his fellow soldiers land in Batavia on the island of Java, ready to defend the island from Japan’s war path which had already seized much of the Netherlands’ East Indies. Hera-Singh had already been graded as a cook on the 14th of December 1941, giving us a clue to his character; as recognised by Adelaide-based District Catering Supervisor Cedric Stanton Hicks, (3) ‘to improve the feeding and functioning of the army, it was necessary to get good soldiers to be cooks’. The increased standard of army cooks in the Second World War was attributed to recommendations sent by Battalion leaders, even if such cooks were expected to partake in fighting alongside this task. Although an underrepresented job in the armed forces, the revived role of the cook in the Second World War was essential to fuelling soldiers and boosting moral – something Hera- Singh was clearly trusted to do in the kitchen and on the battlefield.

The 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion led and assisted many of the 3000 Australian troops on the island with around 30,000 other Allied forces, but this was still no match for the 40,000 Japanese troops on familiar soil.  Un this stage of the war, Japanese intentions regarding Australia were not fully understood and immense pressure was placed on Australian troops in Java to save their homeland from what was considered as an impending invasion. Hera-Singh and his comrades fought strongly until the last minute, where under the command of South Australian Brigadier Arthur Blackburn, the Allied forces surrendered as prisoners of war to the Japanese on the 8th of March after only two days of fighting (4).

Prisoner of War under Japanese Powers

Hera-Singh was reported ‘Missing in Action’ in Java and reported as a missing Prisoner of War, later recovered from the Japanese at Thailand on the 20th of August 1945 – more than three years after Hera-Singhs initial report as a missing Prisoner of War on the 7th of March 1942. A primary source from Japanese records, shows Hera- Singh most likely working on the Thai-Burma railway with much of his Battalion. This railway has come to epitomise the labour and struggle of over 12,000 Australian prisoners of war, and the precursor to thousands of fatalities. Ex-prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway Bart Richardson stated in an interview, ‘we'd be [labouring] all day. We'd be up in the dark.’ (5) This account and similar research from the Australian War Memorial (6) supports another account about Bishan Hera-Singh from great-nephew Garry Hera-Singh; that darker skinned soldiers were delegated worse tasks in the camps by the Japanese, with Bishan Hera-Singh also allegedly stating that if the war had gone on another six months, he would not have survived the conditions of the camp (7). This highlights the lack of respite provided under Japanese confinement, and the immense will and strength needed by soldiers such as Hera-Singh to hold onto the light of freedom after years of conflict, and now fatal labour under foreign oppressors – his presence is indicative of a larger symptom of warfare: the inhumane imprisonment of the soldier, and the inner, true Australian will to simply survive in the face of violence and death.

Recovery and Life After War

Hera-Singh disembarked from Moretown Bay as found in Figure 6 and ‘shared a meal with relatives and friends’ at the Wayville camp before returning to his mother and siblings in Adelaide. Receiving the 1939/45, Pacific and Burma stars, as well as the Defence, War, and A.S.M medals, Hera-Singh also married Elaine Hera-Singh (born McDiarmid) and raised a family. He passed away on the 7th of June 1984 at the age of 72 in South Australia, and his name is recorded on the Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial.

Citations

1 Hera-Singh, G. (2023). Interviewed by student, personal communication.

2 P. Stanley, ‘Die In Battle, Do Not Despair: The Indians On Gallipoli, 1915’, West Midlands, England: Helion & Company Limited, 2015

3 J. Walpole, ‘Food Fighters: AACC – 60th Anniversary’, Army – The Soldier’s Newspaper, 2008

4 Australian War Memorial Authors, ‘2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion’, Australian War Memorial, Australia

5 Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘Bart Richardson – Thai Burma Railway’, YouTube, 2020

6 Dr P. Stanley, ‘Great in Adversity: Indian Prisoners of War’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Australia, 2002

7 Hera-Singh, G. (2023). Interviewed by student, personal communication.

8 Hera-Singh, G. (2023). Interviewed by Mehar Bains, personal communication.

Reference list

2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion n.d., www.awm.gov.au, viewed 14 May 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U56172>.

Advertiser 1945, ‘MORE S.A. P.O.W. ARRIVE’, 31 October, Adelaide, South Australia, viewed 18 May 2023, <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48675238?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2F A%2Ftitle%2F44%2F1945%2F10%2F31%2Fpage%2F2667574%2Farticle%2F48675238>.

Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs 2020, Bart Richardson - Thai-Burma Railway, www.youtube.com, viewed 19 May 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdfipPqXj5w&ab_channel=AustralianDepartmentofVet erans%27Affairs>.

AWM52 8/5/3/10 - June 1941 1941, www.awm.gov.au, viewed 18 May 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1367719>.

AWM52 8/5/3/8 - April 1941 1941, www.awm.gov.au, viewed 14 May 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1367717?image=174>.

Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia 2023, Vwma.org.au, viewed 18 May 2023, <https://vwma.org.au/explore/memorials/1906>.

Department of Veterans' Affairs 1941, Australians’ Big Part in Syria (1941) newsclip, Anzac Portal. ― n.d., Fall of Java | Anzac Portal, anzacportal.dva.gov.au.

Kratoska, PH 2006, The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946 : documents and selected writings, Routledge, London ; New York.

National Archives of Australia: 2 Echelon, Army Headquarters; Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947, 01 Jan 1914 -; SX10032, HERA-SINGH BISHAN: Service Number - SX10032: Date of birth - 13 Jan 1912: Place of birth - MENINGIE SA : Place of enlistment - ADELAIDE SA : Next of Kin - HERA SINGH JANE, 1939 – 1948.

National Archives of Australia: Japanese Government - Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; Australian POW [Prisoner of War] indices, 1942 – 1948; SX10032, HERA Singh Bishan. Service Number SX10032 Date of Birth: 13-01-1912 Father's Name: Hera Singh Jack Mother's Name: Hera Singh Jane, 1942 – 1948.

Private B Hera-Singh n.d., www.awm.gov.au, viewed 14 May 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10066672>.

Stanley, P 2002, ‘Great in adversity’: Indian prisoners of war in New Guinea | Australian War Memorial, www.awm.gov.au, viewed 31 May 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/journal/j37/indians>.

Stanley, P 2021, DIE IN BATTLE, DO NOT DESPAIR : the indians on gallipoli 1915., Helion And Company, S.L.

Sunday Times 1942, ‘Must Hold Java To Save Australia’, 15 February, Perth, Western Australia, viewed 18 May 2023, <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59165457>.

Walpole, J 2001, Fighters too, www.diggerhistory.info, viewed 18 May 2023, <http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-food/food-fighters.htm>.