PARENTS : George and Linda Quittenton

SPOUSE ; Stella Quittenton

DATE OF ENLISTMENT ; 8 July 1940

PLACE OF ENLISTMENT ; Caulfield, Victoria

SERVICE/REGIMENT ; Royal Australian Artillery
4th Anti Tank Regiment

SERVICE NUMBER ; VX45344

DATE TAKEN PRISONER ; 15 February 1942

PLACE TAKEN PRISONER ; Singapore.

MARCHED TO ; Changi Prison Camp

WORK FORCE : A Force (Sent from Singapore to Burma)

AGE ; 37 years

If taken Prisoner, it is a soldier's duty to try to escape, and a group of 8 friends who were members of the 4th Anti Tank Regiment, made their plans for excape.

It was understood, that if any soldier did escape and was recaptured by the Japanese, there would be dire consequences as a result.

A group of 8 friends, had made plans to escape if the occasion arose, and this occasion arose on 3rd June 1942 at a Prisoner of War Camp at Tavoy.

Unfortunately,they were betrayed by natives and recaptured by the Japanese 0n the 4th, when they were confined to a Burmese native gaol until it was decided what their punishment was to be.

On 6th June, they were all bound with hands behind their backs and taken by truck to a cemetery just the other side of Tavoy airport, where they were blindfolded, and led individually to where 8 graves had been dug. Each grave had a stake place in front of it.

The men were made to sit upright against the stakes to which they were then bound and shot.

These men did not have any sort of trial and were refused last rites and final messages to their loved ones before being executed.

NOTE

This group of men became known in Australian Military Circles as "The Tavoy Eight" and they, along with at least 12 others, executed as a result of being recaptured after trying to excape were in 2012 posthumously awarded "The Commendation for Galllantry for Service during World War 2."

These awards were presented to members of the families, who are in possession of the individual soldiers War Medals at Parliament House, Canberra in September 2012.