BUCKLEY, Augustine John
| Service Numbers: | 166029, QX14648 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 19 September 1938 |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/10th Field Regiment |
| Born: | Mullumbimby, New South Wales, Australia, 28 August 1920 |
| Home Town: | New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Postal Worker |
| Died: | Natural causes, Brisbane - Queensland, Australia, 8 May 1995, aged 74 years |
| Cemetery: |
Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery & Crematorium, Brisbane Lawn 2G 5/#/297 Pinnaroo Cemetery |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 19 Sep 1938: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sergeant, 166029, 2nd/10th Field Regiment | |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Jul 1940: | Involvement Sergeant, 166029, also QX14648 | |
| 15 Jul 1940: | Involvement QX14648, also 166029 | |
| 15 Jul 1940: | Enlisted | |
| 15 Feb 1942: | Imprisoned Malaya/Singapore, Augustine John 'Jack' Buckley became a POW with the fall of Singapore. He was initially imprisoned at Changi, and then moved to work on the Thai-Burma railway. | |
| 12 Dec 1945: | Discharged | |
| 12 Dec 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sergeant, 166029, 2nd/10th Field Regiment |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Matthew Rutkin
Augustine John Buckley, known as Jack, was born on 28 August 1920 at Mullumbimby in NSW. He was the youngest of four children and only son of Timothy Buckley and his wife Catherine O'Brien. Within a year or two his family relocated to Qld to the inner Brisbane suburb of New Farm.
Jack's father died in 1920 when Jack was 5 years old.
Jack worked as a postman, and on 13 September 1938, not long after his 18th birthday he enlisted in the Milita.
After war broke out, Jack resigned from the Militia and on 15 July 1940 he enlisted in the AIF at Kelvin Grove in Brisbane. He was not yet 20 (the minimum age limit at the time), so Jack wrote his sister Mary's birthday - 25 March as his own. This raised his age by five months and he got in succesfully.
Jack was attached to the 2/10 Field Regiment and sent to Malaya.
Jack was in Singapore at the time the British surrendered to the Japanese, and like thousands of others he became a POW.
In later life Jack recalled being located at one stage in the Kanchanaburi POW Camp, beside the infamous bridge over the Khwae Noi River (the so-called Bridge on the River Kwai). American Liberator planes dropped bombs to blow up the bridge, but some bombs missed and landed on the POW Camp. Unfortunately some POWs were accidentally killed.
Jack was freed after the war in November 1945 and repatriated home to Brisbane. He was formally discharged from the army on 12 December 1945, and began his new life as a civilian by getting married to Miss Rita Boorman three days later on 15 December 1945.
Jack and Rita had three children.
Jack died in Brisbane age 74 on 8 May 1995.
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