George Sproule STOKES

George Sproule STOKES Update Details

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STOKES, George Sproule

Service Number:	NX22874
Enlisted:	30 May 1940
Last Rank:	Lance Bombardier
Last Unit:	Anti Tank Batteries / Companies
Born:	Burwood, New South Wales, Australia, 5 September 1918
Home Town:	Cremorne, North Sydney, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Assistant Buyer
Died:	Died at sea (Montevideo Maru), South China Sea, 1 July 1942, aged 23 years
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Commemorated: - Panel 20, Rabaul Memorial, Rabaul, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Rabaul Memorial, Rabaul Montevideo Maru Memorial

World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939:	Involvement Lance Bombardier, NX22874, Anti Tank Batteries / Companies
30 May 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Lance Bombardier, NX22874

Help us honour George Sproule Stokes's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Dianne Black

Parents: - George William Stokes and Ada Siddella Sprowles married 18 Nov 1911 in Parramatta, New South Wales

Wife: - Stephanie Sybil Joy "Steve" Roberts, (married 1940 in Chatswood, New South Wales) of Roseville, New South Wales.

Lance Bombardier Stokes enlisted on 30th May 1940 and served in New Britain. Following the Japanese invasion on 23rd January 1942, (Battle of Rabaul), he was taken prisoner of war (POW) and held at Rabaul. On 22 June 1942, Lance Bombardier Stokes was presumed to be one of an estimated 845 POWs and 209 civilians who embarked from Rabaul aboard the unmarked Japanese transport ship MV Montevideo Maru. The POWs were members of 2/22 Battalion, No. 1 Independent Company, and other units of Lark Force. Civilians included officials of the New Guinea Administration and missionaries. The ship sailed unescorted for Hainan Island. On 1 July 1942 all the prisoners died when the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines.

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