MAJOR LEWIS ONE OF THREE 2/6TH TO SURVIVE BORNEO & SANDAKAN
Four: 1939/45 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal and Australian Service Medal all correctly named to WX3338 T. T. Lewis
Major Travers Thorold (Peter) Lewis, an architect from Cottesloe, WA, enlisted on 1 May 1940 having previously served in the Militia in the RAE from 1935.
On the outbreak of war he was appointed as a Captain in the 2/2nd Field Company, then on the 14th November he was given command of the 2/6th Field Park Coy,
He embarked on to Malaya in Jun 1941, and the unit was based in Malacca in support of the two Field Engineer Company’s 8th Division located with the 27th Bde, Segamat sector.
He was promoted to Major on 24th December and after the 2/30th Battalion ambush at Gemas on 14th January 1942, 27th Bde conducted a fighting withdrawal to Singapore. The 2/6th Fd Park Coy suffered casualties from Japanese artillery and air attacks, before withdrawing to Singapore on the 9th February. A further six men of the 2/6th were killed prior to the 8th Division surrendering to the Japanese and the survivors imprisoned in Changi.
Whilst in the Changi camp he played a role in designing the Chapel before being shipped to Borneo on the Ume Maru with ‘B’ Force in July, arriving in Sandakan.
Major Lewis was tasked with building an airfield at Sandakan. The design and construction of the runway was sabotaged and deliberately delayed by the prisoners. The Kempeitai suspected him of being involved in intelligence activities and he was sent to Kuching and jailed for the remainder of the war.
When finally recovered he was suffering malnutrition and temporary blindness and was hospitalized before returning to Australia via Morotai. He was discharged in January 1946, one of 145 WA POW transported to Borneo, and one of seven to have survived. He was one of only three of the 2/6th Fd Park Coy to survive Borneo, with the remainder dying at Sandakan 1 and 2 camps, or on death marches. He returned to architecture post war, and died in Cottesloe, WA on 6 Apr 1955
EF SOLD
