Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Tommy Fury was amongst 100s of 2/4th soldiers on board 'Aquitania' anchored off Fremantle 15 January 1942 who disobeyed orders not to leave the ship.
The 2/4th had been away for several months training at Woodside, SA and were recently stationed in Darwin, NT. when the Battalion was urgently called up to reinforce the ill-fated 8th Division in Malaya/Singapore. The men did not know their destination, but wanted to see their families before leaving for a front-line somewhere.
Many soldiers were locked up at Fremantle unable to free themselves to re-board the 'Aquitania' before she sailed midday the next day, 16 January 1942. Others found themselves stranded and unable to reach Fremantle in time.

Whatever, 90 well-trained machine gunners were left behind when the Battalion sailed for Singapore. Few had chosen this outcome. They were keen to do their bit for Australia - for a large number of men it had been a long wait especially for those who enlisted Aug/Sept/Nov/Dec 1940.
Several weeks later the 90 men headed out of Fremantle. It was planned to deliver them to Singapore however as their ship neared Singapore waters they learned Singapore was about to fall to Japan. The men were then delivered to Java and taken POWs of Japan about 8 March 1942 when the Dutch capitulated to Japan.
Fury was sent to work on the Burma end of the Railway with a work party called Java Party No. 4 with Williams Force. They sailed via Singapore to the northern coastline of Burma.
This Force had many experienced engineers from 2/2nd Pioneers returning from the Middle East and the Japanese made good use of their skills. Williams Force worked up and down the line - accommodated in the usual appalling conditions; with little food and no medicines the men became ill from numerous tropical illness. Several died. The men would return to their camp following a full day's work and find their Japanese captors ordering them to get their belonging, they were walking to the next camp - through the night - arriving at their new location, they were immediately ordered to work.
Tommy Fury was killed during an Allied air-raid at Thanbyuzayat Camp, Burma. He was 35 years of age. Born in Kalgoorlie, he had lived his life in the Goldfields and worked as a miner. He was father to three young sons.