Lot 4495

Description

Group of Four to Died as POW: 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Australia Service Medal 1939-45. VX613 W.J.R. Sinclair. All medals impressed. Heavy contact marks, otherwise very fine - good very fine.

Walter Joseph Robert Sinclair, labourer, age 23, born at Port Melbourne, Vic; Enl.23Oct1939 at No.7 Drill Hall, Vic; to 2/2 Fd Regt 11Nov1939; Group II Signaller 08Mar1940; Emb.14Apr1940; Disemb.18May1940 at Kantria; to Greece 31Mar1941; MIA and later believed to be POW 30May1941; now reported as POW interned at Stalag VIIA, no date; officially reported POW 28Oct1941; Interned Stalag VIIIB Apr1943 and still reported to be there 15Jan1944; now reported missing 25Jan1945 presumed dead (unaccounted for since cessation of hostilities); commemorated at Athens Memorial, Athens, Greece, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Ballarat, Vic, and Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Canberra, ACT. ^ ^Stalag XVIIB (244) was located at Gneixendorf, Austria. It was opened in October 1939 and closed in March 1945. Gneixendorf is a village near Krems in Lower Austria and the stalag there was the setting for the 1953 film, Stalag 17, starring William Holden.^^With copy of Service File, a b&w photo and other research.