COX, Harold Lindsay
| Service Number: | TX5868 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 October 1941 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/40th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia, 4 September 1920 |
| Home Town: | Burnie, Burnie, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Smithton, Tasmania, Australia, 6 December 2007, aged 87 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Mersey Vale Memorial Park Cemetery, Tasmania |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
Biography contributed by Chris Buckley
Harold was the ninth of ten children of Arthur William Cox (born 1877 in Emu Bay, Tasmania) and Edith Laura Wright (born 1880 in Longford, Tasmania). Arthur, a Farmer, and Edith married in 1903 in Wynyard, Tasmania.
Harold was working as a Labourer in Smithton Tasmania when he enlisted in the AMF on 22 October 1941. He served with the 2/40 Battalion as a Private (Service No: TX5868) and was in Timor, Java, Burma and Siam. Reported Missing on 30 April 1942, in June that year he was reported a a PoW interred in a Thai Camp. On 13 September 1945, Harold was reported as being alive in Siam, and on 4 October 1945 he was 'recovered from the Japs at Siam' (National Archives Australia). Harold was evacuated to 111 Australian General Hospital, and Discharged in June 1946. Harold was Blind as a result of his internment. His father had died in March that year.
In 1949, Harold was a Trainee in Higinbotham, Hampton, Victoria when he married Eileen May Park (born 1919 in Wodonga, Victoria) - Eileen was a Dressmaker. Harold and Eileen settled in Devonport, Tasmania (Harold was not employed), where Eileen died in 1997 and Harold in 2007.