42nd Battalion War Graves at LAE WAR CEMETERY

Papua New Guinea

BALL, Private, ALFRED ERNEST, Q3943 1. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 29th August 1943. Age 23. Son of Alfred Henry and Alice Vena Ball, of Cairns, Queensland. S. C. 3.

BARKER, Private, CHARLES NORMAN, Q109518. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 4th September 1943. Age 29. Husband of Mrs. M. Barker, of Cloncurry, Queensland. P. D. 1.

BERTRAM, Private, ANDREW ALEXANDER, Q113759. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 29th August 1943. Age 32. Son of Andrew and Elizabeth Bertram, of Kalinga, Queensland. S. B. 11.

BYRIEL, Private, DOUGLAS HOWARD, Q36114. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 22nd August 1943. Age 24. Son of Emil Clarence and Mabel Elizabeth Crissey Byriel, of Bundaberg, Queensland. R. A. 3.

CARDEW, Corporal, ROY JAMES HUNTER, QX44696. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 18th August 1943. Age 20. Son of James Joseph Hunter Cardew and Edith Mary Regina Cardew, of Clermont, Queensland. Q. D. 16.

CLARK, Private, ROBERT EDWARD, QX34101. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 25th August 1943. Age 21. Son of Ernest and Emma Lizzie Clark, of New Farm, Queensland. S. B. 13.

CLARKSON, Private, LESLIE LORRAINE, QX34633. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 19th August 1943. Age 26. Son of William Leslie and Grace Lillian Clarkson, of Wowan, Queensland. P. C. 7.

CROSS, Private, BURNEY ROBERT, QX53263. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 17th August 1943. Age 27. Son of Patrick Edward and Clara Frances Cross, of Rockhampton, Queensland. P. C. 4.

CROW, Lance Corporal, KEITH SINCLAIR GODDARD, QX53706. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 22nd August 1943. Age 22. Son of Alfred William Filby Goddard Crow, and Elsie Minnie Jane Crow, of Gladstone, Queensland. L. D. 9.

DALRYMPLE, Private, JOHN CURTIS, Q113562. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 7th September 1943. Age 29. Son of William and Helen Dalrymple; husband of Mavis Lillian Dalrymple, of Dunon Park, Queensland. M. C. 14.

EDDLESTON, Private, GEORGE HENRY, Mentioned in Despatches, QX24758. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 16th August 1943. Age 21. Son of Richard and Eva Arm Eddleston, of Cordelia, Queensland. Q. A. 10.

EISEMAN, Corporal, EDWARD JOHN, Q113505. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 22nd August 1943. Age 27. Son of George and Annie Eiseman, of Mount Morgan, Queensland. N. B. 1.

FRANCIS, Private, GEORGE ERNEST, N265740. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 22nd August 1943. Age 2 1. Son of Norman and Dorothy Pearl Francis, of Batemans Bay, New South Wales. P. C. 14.

GREENE, Private, JOHN HENRY, QX31358. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 17th August 1943. Age 32. Son of William and Bridget Greene; husband of Ada Emma Greene. Q. A. 12.

HALL, Private, CECIL JAMES, Q113517. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 19th August 1943. Age 22. Son of Thomas Ulston Hall and Mary Arm Hall, of Mount Morgan, Queensland. S. A. 14

HINDLEY, Private, JAMES, QX22314. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 23rd August 1943. Age 24. Son of James and Arm Hindley, of Townsville, Queensland. L. D. 14.

HOARE, Sergeant, LEONARD JOHN, QX41801. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 29th August 1943. Age 25. Son of Alfred John and Annie Maud Hoare, of Rockhampton, Queensland; husband of Ellen Evelyn Hoare, of Sandgate, Queensland. P. C. 3.

HOWLAND, Private, LESLIE ALFRED, QX33567. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 23rd August 1943. Age 32. Son of Alfred and Edith Tracy Howland, of Dutton Park, Queensland. L. D. 13.

McKINLAY, Lieutenant, DAVID EDWARD, QX34029. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 28th August 1943. Age 30. Son of David Brown McKinlay and Ada Minerva McKinlay; husband of Evon Dagmar Agnette McKinlay, of Rockhampton, Queensland. B.Com., A.F.I.A., A.A.I.S., A.A.U.Q. R. B. 14.

MORTLEMAN, Private, NORMAN WILLIAM, Q 113 543. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 29th August 1943. Age 34. Son of Thomas Edward and Wilhelmina Mortleman, of Mount Morgan, Queensland. S. B. 8.

PATTINGALE, Captain, EDWARD JOSEPH, QX34024. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 22nd August 1943. Age 3 1. Son of Edward William and Dora Pattingale, of Rockhampton North, Queensland. P. C. 12.

PEARSON, Private, JOSEPH DESMOND, Q37029. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 4th September 1943. Age 26. Son of Thomas Henry and Sarah Ellen Pearson, of North Rockhampton, Queensland. S. C. 1.

PRICE, Private, FREDERICK CLAUDE, QX35895. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 31st August 1943. Age 26. Son of Frederick Peter and Enzay Eliza Price, of Mount Morgan, Queensland. P. D. 8.

ROE, Private, CHARLES EDWIN, Q122862. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 25th August 1943. Age 25. Son of Charles and Florence Roe, of Miriam Vale, Queensland. S. B. 14.

SHERLOCK, Private, ARTHUR PETAIN, Q36790. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 6th September 1943. Age 27. Son of William, Henry and Elizabeth Sherlock, of North Rockhampton, Queensland. P. C. 16.

THOMAS, Private, BRIAN MACNAMARA, QX53704. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 19th August 1943. Age 26. Son of George Alban Thomas and Amelia Jane Thomas, of Longreach, Queensland. P. A. 10.

WEDGE, Corporal, HECTOR MERVYN, NX153887. A.I.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 22nd August 1943. Age 25. Son of the Revd. Samuel Wedge and Irena May Wedge, of Northmead, New South Wales. LL.B. L. D. 4.

WELLMAN, Corporal, ALFRED LENARD, Q113136. A.C.M.F. 42 Bn. Australian Infantry. 28th August 1943. Age 3 1. Son of Henry and Ethel Christina Wellman, of Yeppoon, Queensland. P. C. 11.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission 10 July 2002

Papua New Guinea

Location Information.

Lae is a town and port at the mouth of the Markham River on the Huon Gulf. Lae War Cemetery is located adjacent to the Botanical Gardens in the centre of Lae.

Historical Information.

In the early months of 1942, Japan enjoyed a crushing superiority in the air, and it was Lae and its neighbouring airfields that were the objects of the first Japanese attack on New Guinea. Lae and Salamaua were bombed on 21 January 1942 by 100 planes, but the land forces did not enter the territory until 7 March, when 3,000 Japanese landed at Lae. There were landings too at Salamaua, followed on 21 July by further landings at Buna and Gona on the east coast in preparation for a drive through the Owen Stanley Mountains across the Papuan peninsula to Port Moresby. The vital stage of the New Guinea campaign dates from that time. Lae became one of the bases from which the southward drive was launched and maintained until it was stopped at loribaiwa Ridge, a point within 60 kilometres of Port Moresby.

LAE WAR CEMETERY was commenced in 1944 by the Australian Army Graves Service and handed over to the Commission in 1947. It contains the graves of men who lost their lives during the New Guinea campaign whose graves were brought here from the temporary military cemeteries in areas where the fighting took place. The Indian casualties were soldiers of the army of undivided India who had been taken prisoner during the fighting in Malaya and Hong Kong. The great majority of the unidentified were recovered between But airfield and Wewak, where they had died while employed in working parties. Of the two men belonging to the army of the United Kingdom, one was attached to 219th Australian Infantry Battalion and the other was a member of the Hong Kong-Singapore Royal Artillery. The naval casualties were killed, or died of injuries received, on H.M. Ships King George V, Glenearn and Empire Arquebus, and the four men of the Merchant Navy were killed when the S.S. Gorgon was bombed and damaged in Milne Bay in April 1943.

The cemetery contains 2,818 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 444 of them unidentified.

Prior to the First World War, north-eastern New Guinea and certain adjacent islands were German possessions, and were occupied by Australian Forces on 12 September 1914. Several cemeteries in New Guinea contain the graves of men who died during that war. There is one such grave in Lae War Cemetery, brought in from a burial ground where permanent maintenance could not be assured.

The LAE MEMORIAL, which stands in the cemetery, commemorates more than 300 officers and men of the Australian Army, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in these operations and have no known grave. Casualties of the Royal Australian Navy who lost their lives in the south-western Pacific region, and have no known grave but the sea, are commemorated on Plymouth Naval Memorial in England along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and of other Commonwealth Naval Forces.