Only 48 hours before the invasion of Singapore Island by the Japanese, a composite battalion was formed to help strengthen the Australian numbers defending the North West corner of the island. Known as the Special Reserve Battalion (SRB), it comprised men from the Australian Army Service Corps (AASC), Ordinance units and a company from the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion. The AASC (cooks, mechanics, drivers, clerks etc.) were relatively untrained. Such was the desperation of the time.

On Anzac Day (25th April) and Remembrance Day (11th November) each year, we reflect on those brave men and women who gave there lives in the defense of our country. We also remember those who have gone to war, returned, but suffered the physical and mental anguish of their duty.

In 2009, while undertaking family history research, I found a forgotten member of the family who died in World War 2 while working as a POW on the Burma-Thailand Railway.