Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Chapman was born 9 Aug 1921 at Cooroy, Qld the son of William & Helen Chapman. He started at Wooroolin West School in early 1930’s – pupil number 23ww with his siblings Jean & Olive. His younger siblings Beryl, Dot, Marie, Margaret & Bill also went to Wooroolin West School.
Gordon Moore mentioned John in the book From Federation to Future: “John Chapman spent some years in Singapore as a POW having arrived there just before it surrendered to the Japanese.”
John enlisted at Maryborough on 15 Oct 1941 and was discharged from 2/26 Australian Infantry Battalion on 3 Dec 1945. He was in Singapore when the Japanese attacked on 8 Feb 1942 and the brigade defended the Causeway sector. They could not stop the Japanese, however, and on 15 Feb 1942 the British commander on Singapore surrendered. The 2/26th spent the next three-and-a-half years as prisoners of war. After the surrender the battalion was concentrated in Changi goal, where they were used as labour for work parties, first in Singapore and then in other parts of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Men were sent to Burma and Thailand to work on the railway, while others were sent to Borneo and Japan.
The service records for John Henry Chapman are not yet available on the NAA website.
After the war John returned to Kingaroy where he went into partnership with his sister Beryl and her husband Jim Vine in the Imperial Café. He married Joy Biddle and had 2 sons. John & his family left Kingaroy and went to Toowoomba where he did farm work before returning to the South Burnett. John & Joy brought the licence for the Terminus Hotel, Proston about 1963 with another one of his sisters Jean and her husband Hughie McNamara. The hotel burnt to the ground in March 1966 (unsure if John was still there!) John & his family then moved to Brisbane doing electronics fixing jute boxes etc
John died, aged 46, in 1968 and is buried at Pinaroo Lawn Cemetery. Per his niece Christine he died whilst while mowing the lawn at his home at The Gap.
It was lovely to find so many Wooroolin families connected to this man. His sister Olive married Les Freeman who is also on the Honour Board and I spent much time at her home as a teenager! And it is with many thanks to his niece Christine Angel, daughter of Beryl & Jim Vine for the information of his life after WW11. Lest We Forget