Private: NX59073 Francis Livingston HOPKINS. POW

2/29th BATTALION AIF

Private: NX59073 Francis Livingston HOPKINS. POW

Born: 19th September 1908. San Francisco, California. USA.

Married: 1934. Boorowa, New South Wales, Australia. Marriage Cert:7730/1934.

Wife: Venita Marion Hopkins. nee: Solomon (1911-1983)

Died: 5th October 1943. Died of Illness on the Thai-Burma Railway as a Prison of War.

Father: Dan Livingston Hopkins. (1878-1919)

Mother: Bridget Agnes Hopkins. nee: McInerney. (1878-1933)

INFORMATION

Francis Livingston Hopkins enlisted with the 2nd AIF on the 12th July 1940 at Paddington, New South Wales and went into camp at Liverpool. Francis was allocated the 2/29th Battalion and proceeded overseas from Sydney on the 10th January 1942 and disembarked at Singapore on the 26th January 1942. Francis was a member of the Reinforcements for the defence of Singapore.

After Bakri, the 2/29th was reinforced with 500 men - many of whom had only recently arrived from Australia - and subsequently fought as part of the defence of Singapore. However, they could not stop the Japanese and on 15 February the British commander on Singapore surrendered.

The 2/29th spent the next three-and-a-half years as prisoners of war. Concentrated in Changi goal, the battalion was used to supply labour for work parties, first in Singapore and then in other parts of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Men were sent to Burma and Thailand to work on the railway, while others were sent to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Japan.

Australian War Memorial

Francis was reported as Missing in Action on the 16th February the day after the Surrender of Singapore and believed to be a Prisoner of War in Changi Goal and to work on the Thai-Burma Railway.

The 420km-long railway – known as the ‘Death Railway’ - was designed by the all-conquering Japanese military in 1942.

Bypassing vulnerable sea routes, the rail link would enable the Japanese to move troops and supplies to Burma, where they intended to prepare an attack against British-held India. But with a path through thick jungle and rugged mountains and with Japan lacking heavy machinery, the project required a huge labour force. After Japan’s victories across South East Asia in early 1942, including the capture of Singapore, they had a ready pool of workers - the 60,000 Australian, British, Dutch and American prisoners.

As part of the mass mobilisation of prisoners, the 13,000 Australians held captive in Singapore, Java and Timor were sent to work on the railway. When the project fell behind schedule 270,000 Asian labourers were enticed or coerced to work for the Japanese. Both groups of workers endured harsh working conditions and brutal treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors. Physical punishment was meted out for even minor offences such as failing to salute a Japanese guard. Face slapping, often with a bamboo stick or shovel handle was the most common beating. But more barbaric punishments were also common. Some prisoners were forced to hold a heavy stone above their heads for many hours. Others might be forced into small cells with little food or water.

The Japanese military police - the Kempetai - were particularly feared by POWs. They would torture to extract information from their captors, particularly those caught attempting escape. POWs also faced constant outbreaks of tropical disease, such as beriberi, malaria and cholera, for which they had few medicines to treat. And despite toiling for at heavy labour over long hours, the POWs were fed meagre food rations. For those lucky enough to survive, many owed their lives to the tireless POW doctors and medical orderlies who treated the sick in primitive hospitals. The most famous was Australian Army doctor Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop whose operations with basic surgical instruments on bamboo tables and his untiring efforts to heal the sick and injured became legendary.

The most notorious site along the railway is Hellfire Pass, where prisoners drilled, blasted and dug their way through limestone and quartz rock. It gained its name from the brutal working conditions – shifts up to 18 hours a day during some periods – and the ghostly light thrown by bamboo fires as emaciated figures toiled through the night. Many survivors who worked there remember it as a hell on earth. The railway was finished on October 16, 1943 at a cost of thousands of lives. More than 2800 Australians perished among the 12,500 Allied POWs, while some 75,000 Asian labourers died. While it proved a vital rail link for the Japanese, it became a regular target for Allied air attacks. After the end of World War II in 1945, large parts of the railway were ripped up while other parts were abandoned to the jungle. Despite their suffering, the prisoner labourers on the Thai-Burma Railway have become lionised for the way they heroically overcame adversity.

9 News.

Francis died of Illness on the 5th October 1943 after spending more than 18 months as a Prisoner of War and is remembered with honour and is commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma.

Gardens of Death Railway

Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, BURMA

Francis Livingston HOPKINS (1908-1943)

Grave of Francis Livingston Hopkins. Plot A15, Row F, Grave 4. Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma.

Family Information

Frank was a married 31 year old Bootmaker from Leichardt, New South Wales, upon his enlistment. His parents Dan Livingston Hopkins and Bridget McInerney were marred in 1907 and has three children. Francis Hopkins. (1908-1943) - Sydney Thomas Hopkins (1912-1981) Birth Cert:52257/1912- Annette Mary Hopkins ( 1915-1996) Birth Cert:674/1915.

Frank married Venita Marian Solomon in 1934 and had three children. Marian Agnes Hopkins (1934-1937) - Peter Hopkins (19..-1939) - John Hopkins (19..-19..) After Frank died during World War 2 of a Tropical Ulcer, she married Patrick Claude Walshe.

Military Records. World War 2