Rosewood History. Qld.
Gunner Johannes William De VRIES
Service number, QX17541
Unit: 2/10th Field Regiment, 8th Division, Australian Army, Second Australian Imperial Force
© Jane Schy 2026
Mrs Trinkje De Vries left Amsterdam with her two year old son, Johannes Willem, in March 1913. She was heading for Australia to join her husband, also named Johannes, who was already here establishing a home for them. He had applied for passage warrants and paid their fare for them to immigrate. They steamed to Queensland on the German Mail Ship Kleist, which left Bremen on 7th May 1913, and arrived at Brisbane on 30th June. Johannes was at the wharf to meet his family.
Johannes Willem De Vries was born 12th July 1910, in Amsterdam, North Holland. He was enrolled on 1st November 1915 at Ebenezer State School near Rosewood, Queensland. His parents were naturalised the year before, and his father had purchased 115 acres of land where he eventually established the very successful “Moorelands Utility Poultry Farm.” Johannes was the Grower’s Representative on the Egg Board for District 4. At the Commonwealth and New Zealand egg-laying test at Croydon in 1931, his team of White Leghorns were the winners of the competition with 552 first grade eggs.
Two sisters were born, Margarette Gryntje De VRIES (1916-1995) and Veronica Violet De VRIES (1922-2004).
Young Johannes aka John William, grew to be over 6ft tall and was given the nickname “Tiny.” He enlisted in the Australian Army on 31st July 1940 at Kelvin Grove in Brisbane.
He was in the 2/10th Field Regiment, which was formed at Redbank Camp. It was one of the 8th Division’s three artillery regiments. Johns’s father sent 25 dozen eggs to the camp for the men.
John’s rank was Gunner, and he was trained to operate, load, and maintain heavy weaponry such as field artillery, anti-aircraft guns, or anti-tank guns. His regiment was given leave in January 1941, before boarding a train to Sydney and embarking HT QX1 (Queen Mary) the next day (2nd February).
The Queen Mary was a part of a convoy of ships taking troops of the 8th Division to Malaya and Singapore.
The troops disembarked at Malacca in Johor on 19th February. The regiment lived between two local high schools and was attached to the 8th Division’s 22nd Brigade while in Malacca. The soldiers trained and carried out manoeuvres at Mersing, about 3½ hours away on the other side of Malaya.
Japan officially entered the War on 8th December 1941, when they attacked Pearl Harbour and began their invasion of Malaya. Japanese troops quickly advanced through Malaya and by January they had entered Johor. John’s regiment was in action from 21st January 1942. The Japanese crossed the Johor Strait, which separated Malaya from Singapore, on 8th February. After continual heavy fighting, shelling from ground assaults and bombing from air strikes, most of the troops withdrew to Singapore on 12th February, where they formed a defensive perimeter around the city. The Garrison surrendered on 15th February and the soldiers were sent to Changi Prisoner of War Camp two days later, which was on the eastern tip of Singapore Island. The camp was huge and was spread over an area of approximately 25 square kilometres. Amongst the prisoners were about 15,000 Australian soldiers.
On 25th January 1943, John was admitted to the hospital set up by the Allied forces within Changi prisoner of war camp. He had dysentery and remained in hospital until 5th February.
Meanwhile, a registered letter was sent to his father, Johannes De Vries, Rosewood, dated 2nd March 1943, via the Qld. Line of Communication Area Records Office at Warwick. The letter informed him that his son was missing, believed to be a POW. Location unknown.
The Japanese started sending large work parties out of Changi to work on their projects on the Burma-Thailand Railway and in Borneo. By mid 1943, there were less than 2,500 Aussies left at the Changi camp.
On 21st April 1943, John was entrained with “F” Force, one of the last labour forces to leave Changi. There were 3,662 Australians and around 3,400 British prisoners of war in “F” Force, and their experience was the most terrible of the Burma-Thailand Railway, also known as the “Death Railway”.
The men, many already unwell, were crowded into poorly ventilated, metal railway trucks with little food and water. They were sent to Ban Pong in Thailand, where they were then forced to march over 300 km to Shimo Sonkuri in Burma. From here they were sent to camps in the far-up country of Thailand near the border with Burma, to work on constructing the line. As the railway’s construction progressed, the men from “F” Force spread across at least six camps in this isolated region. It was too far away from food and medical supplies, and was subjected to incessant monsoonal rain.
Prisoners were fed mainly on thin rice gruel and forced to work building embankments and cutting through rock, using their bare hands and rudimentary tools. They worked through high humidity, wind, and heavy rains until they were exhausted. The whole time they were under the watch of demanding and brutal guards, and suffered beatings for minor infractions.
In August 1943, the POWs were regrouped into two main northermost camps, Kami Sonkurai and Sonkurai. Each camp supplied a similar number of workers for the Japanese engineers on the line. Men in advanced states of illness were sent to the newly re-established Tanbaya hospital camp. (Initially it was “A” Force hospital) Those expected to die were ordered to stay there until told otherwise. Many of these men were from Sonkurai No 2 Camp, which evacuated all of the sickest men, whereas other camps did not. Major Bruce Atlee Hunt A.A.M.C. was in charge of the hospital camp. He and his medical team left Changi with “F” Force and marched to Burma and into the camps. Bruce Hunt never hesitated to stand between the Japanese guards and the well being of the POWs. In fact, he was beaten several times for doing so. With no medical supplies, fighting disease and dysentery was almost impossible. He wrote in one of his reports: The patients fought bravely forcing down rice day after day and week after week, hoping for medical supplies to arrive.
The railway line was finished in late October, but sadly it was just a little too late for John de Vries. He died from colitis on 20th September 1943, aged 33 years. I don’t know for sure which camp he was in, but after collating the information gleaned from various sources, I feel confident that it was Sonkurai Camp.
Colitis, a form of dysentery, was a rampant and fatal condition among Allied prisoners of war. It was caused by poor sanitation, contaminated water, lack of hygiene, and severe malnutrition. One in five died from diseases such as colitis, cholera, malaria, and malnutrition. 1,060 Australians and 2,036 British POWs from “F” Force lost their lives during the construction of the Burma Railway.
Tanbaya hospital camp received the first and only supply of Emetine Hydrochloride (used to treat dysentery) in November 1943. There was only enough to treat 5 patients.
Map of Camps – Burma-Thailand Railway
While John was suffering and dying from cruel and unforgiving treatment at the hands of the Japanese, his family back in Queensland were also suffering. Their suffering was the profound and relentless long term trauma of not knowing. Johannes and Trinkje De Vries put Moorelands up for sale on 6th November 1943 with agent William Norman Ruhno. They moved to Highgate Hill where Johannes continued to work as a poultry farmer.
The De Vries family finally received official advice. It was confirmed by the Red Cross and Japanese authorities, that their son and brother, who was indeed a prisoner of war, had died of colitis in Thailand, location unknown.
John’s service medals were sent to his father: 1939/45 Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal, War Medal, and Australian Service Medal.
The location of his cremated remains was discovered by the War Graves Commission survey party in December 1945. They were in Grave 246 at the Tanbaya hospital cemetery in Burma, pictured at right. The survey party was also ordered to retrieve documents and equipment that had been secretly buried in graves with the deceased soldiers. John’s remains were exhumed and reburied 50 kms North at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma (Myanmar) on 30th September 1946. (Grave A16. G. 5.)
In the later half of 1950, Johannes and Trinkje De Vries went back to Holland where they lived out the remainder of their lives, both passing away in 1965. Margarette De Vries, was a Dutch Army nurse, and she also returned to the Netherlands. Veronica was the only member of the family to stay in Queensland. She died at Imbil in 2004.
I have not included many of the shameful and immoral details I came across, which seem to be all too prevalent in arenas of war. They were hard to read and harder to visualise. When I found the location of John’s remains, I felt glad for the one small mercy…that he was being cared for in his final days by Australian medical officers.
My Aunt, who was hardly wed when her Pilot Officer husband was killed in 1944, once said to me, “There is no sense at all in war. All it does is ruin people’s lives.” He died 4 days after her 24th birthday. He was her one true love. She never remarried.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour
Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
Members of “F Force”, bathing and washing clothes on a washing platform in a stream at Kami Sonkurai Camp No 3. Identified standing, wearing a slouch hat is Carl Odgers. In April 1943, Pte George Aspinall was assigned to “F Force” to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway. He secretly photographed F Force’s experience at great risk to himself and other prisoners, with a folding Six-20 Kodak Brownie.
Lest We Forget.