Updated 2002/09/04 at 18:08:22 (Eastern Australian time).
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Morton Swann (1915-1942)

Born 8th May 1915 as the fifth child (second born in Australia) of Sidney and Olive Swann.

Donald and his younger brother Morton set up a poultry farm in Cathcart St. Goulburn, NSW, some time in the 1930s. As the farm did not earn enough money for the two of them, Donald went back to work at his trade of plastering. Morton married Edna (Ted) Strange and they built a brick house on the Cathcart St. property. Donald married in April 1938 and in 1940 bought a property on the outskirts of Sydney, at Toongabbie, where he set up a new poultry farm.

In September 1939 Australia went war with Germany. On the 10th of June 1940 Italy joined the war on the side of Germany. This news prompted Morton to enlist in the Australian Army the following day. On the 27th of September 1940 Japan signed (in Berlin) the Tri-partite Pact with Germany and Italy and Japan invaded Indo-China two days later. Japan's southern move caused intense concern for the Australian Government which realised the British navy could not defend Singapore. At the time Australia had nearly all its fighting men and ships in Europe or the Mediterranean.

After training at Wallgrove and Bathurst, NX54366 Private Morton Swann embarked (2nd February 1941) on H.M.T. Queen Mary and sailed on a sixteen day trip from Sydney to Singapore. Not much is known officially of Morton's activities for the next twelve months except that he was hospitalised for 4 days with a fever in November.

The Australians in Malaya were put through rigorous jungle and ambush training in very hot tropical conditions. Australians arriving in Singapore found the atmosphere disturbing as many of the British planters and civil servants enjoyed a complacent and privileged life there. The reality was that the soldiers had little air or naval cover and were in mortal danger of an enemy attack along the length of the mountainous Malayan peninsula. Meanwhile the Australian Press suggested to the public the soldiers in Malaya were having a holiday.

On the 6th of December 1941 an Australian Hudson bomber pilot sighted a Japanese fleet of 13 warships and 22 transport vessels 256 miles off the north coast of the Malay Peninsula. A few hours later Japanese troops began to land at Kota Bharu. (This landing was 90 minutes before the more famous attack on the American base at Pearl Harbour.) At the end of this day Japan had disabled the United States main fleet and the U.S. air forces in Hawaii and the Philippines, and had established troop landings in Malaya and Thailand. Australia was now at war with Japan. Over the next 7 weeks 180,000 Indian, Australian & British troops were either killed, captured or driven from Malaya.

A.K. Macdougall in his 2002 book Australians at War, A Pictorial History quotes the American authority on Japan at war, David Bergamini:-"The Australians had fought well. They had taken the offensive, infiltrated, ambushed, and dispelled the growing notion that the Japanese were peculiarly, demonically, at home in the jungle. In the last 10 days the Australians had inflicted heavier losses on Yamashita's men than they had suffered earlier or would suffer later. With another division as good as the Australians, Pervival might have held the line, for by now the Japanes attackers were themselves hungry, footsore and sick. But gaps in the Australian position were plugged with Indian troops who had already been chased south for 400 miles. The plugs broke and Percival had no choice but to fall back on Singapore. The Australian troops, for the most part, were disappointed, because they were still fresh and had so far outfought the Japanese..."

Singapore was surrendered to the Japanese on the 15th February 1942.

Morton's army record shows that in April 1942 he was listed as missing on the 16th February 1942. In March 1946 (after the war) his record was amended to show him missing and presumed to be dead on 14 February 1942. I can remember when I was a child that my father and particularly my grandmother held out some hope that Morton was still alive somewhere.

Sometime in the late 1950's my mother told me that one of Morton's mates had gone to see grandma after the war. He had told her Morton had been thrown out of a Jeep and run over by a towed artillery piece causing Morton to be hospitalised in Singapore. Grandma had then been told the Japanese entered the hospital and those patents who could not walk were bayoneted to death. Morton was one of them.

On February 6th 1982 The Sydney Morning Herald published a review of a documentary film recently shown on London television about the fall of Singapore. The article concludes:- "Survivors of one of the bloodiest episodes of the surrender, the bayoneting of patients in the Alexandra Hospital, recall the bizarre scene that followed. Wounded were slaughtered in their beds, doctors and patients in the operating theatre. The next day, General Yamashita himself came to apologise, and fed the survivors pieces of pineapple from a spoon, while shots rang out outside as the Japanese executed their own men for looting."

The 2002 book called Australians At War, A Pictorial History. by A.K. Macdougall, states on page 233:- "On 14 February, Japanese tanks and infantry reached the pumping station and the reservoirs. Others entered Alexandra Barracks Hospital, where they the next day bayoneted 100 of their prisoners, nearly all of them were patients or medical staff."

At the end of the war nearly 4000 Japanese accused of war crimes were brought to trial. Of these 809 were executed (including General Yamashita).

In 1995 the following letter was published in the Goulburn Post:-

Time to honour World War II Dead

Sir,

In this fiftieth year since the end of World War II please allow me space in your paper to raise a matter that I believe should be of concern to all Goulburn residents.

In 1912 my grandparents (Sidney & Olive Swann) migrated to Goulburn from England with their three children. They lived in Opal Street and later at 510 Auburn Street while my grandfather worked as a carpenter on the railways. Four more children were born in Goulburn including my father (Donald) and his two younger brothers (Morton & Jack). These seven little Australians went to school, grew up and some of them married in Goulburn before Sidney was transferred to the Chullora workshops in Sydney. My father has often told me the story of how he, his brothers and school mates helped carry small rocks up Rocky Hill to build a public subscription memorial to honour Goulburn's dead of W.W.I.

In the 1930's Morton and my father established a poultry farm in Cathcart Street Goulburn. Morton married and built a brick house for himself and his wife on the Cathcart Street poultry farm. Although Morton was exempt from army service (because poultry farming was a reserved occupation) he enlisted at the local Goulburn recruitment office the day news came through that Italy had entered the war (11th June 1940). Eventually both Morton and his younger brother, Jack participated in the Pacific War.

On the 18th of February 1941 Morton sailed on the Queen Mary to Singapore. Nearly a year later on Saturday February 14th 1942 Morton disappeared on Singapore island, never to live in his new brick home in Goulburn. In 1946 the army officially presumed Morton was dead. Recently I visited Goulburn to photograph Morton's name on the war memorial for our family history album, but I could not find his name on public display anywhere. On further enquiry I found there is no full list available anywhere of W.W.II enlisted servicemen from Goulburn, let alone a list of those who died.

I believe the Secretary of the Goulburn RSL Sub Branch and a band of helpers are trying to rectify this situation and I congratulate them for their initiative, wish them well in their efforts and hope they receive prompt and massive support. My personal feelings are that there should be a suitable memorial built in Belmore park, bearing the names of those from Goulburn who died in W.W.II, as a matter of urgency. (Before the fiftieth anniversary of the end of W.W.II in August of this year.)

It seems to me Goulburn should have public monuments bearing the names of ALL Goulburn citizens who paid with their lives during all wars - not just those who died in the Boar War and W.W.I. After all some of those who died in W.W.II carried rocks up Rocky Hill to build the W.W.I memorial that is now the symbol of Goulburn and known by millions of Australians.

Yours faithfully, Kevin Swann, Tumut NSW.

Bill Needham of Mulwaree High School responded to this letter with the information that a Remembrance Corridor had already been established by the school for the 287 from Goulburn who died in W.W.I, and one for the 55 W.W.II dead was under way. An Unveiling and Dedication service was held at the school on Saturday, 18th November 1995. Donald and his family were there. Morton now has a tree and plaque in his honour in Middle Arm Rd. (Near McDermott Rd.) Goulburn, NSW, Australia. He is also remembered by a church window in Merrylands, Sydney, Australia; The War Memorial in Canberra, Australia; and the Singapore Memorial, Kranji Cemetery (Column 122).

© Kevin Swann