ANZAC DAY Archives - Merewether Carlton Rugby Club

AUB JONES SURVIVES CHANGI AND THE THAI BURMA DEATH RAILWAY – BUT AT A COST

Posted on April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 by Merewether.6523

Aub Jones was blessed with speed. Not only did he terrorise defences when he helped Merewether Carlton win six rugby union premierships in the 1930’s but he was just as fleet-footed on the sand and became a noted beach sprinter.

As a member of Merewether SLSC, he was standard bearer of the club’s march past team, outstanding beach sprinter and more than handy swimmer who was involved in some notable rescues.

He even put his life at risk prior going to war when he was visiting family at Wangi on the lake. He noticed a shark in the water. He swam out to a swimmer to warn him of the danger and both returned to shore safely.

Playing on the wing, he had the honour of scoring the Greens opening try in their first premiership in 1932, a 28-9 win over Maitland in the decider. A year later, the Merewether Surf Life Saving Club member took bronze in the Australian beach sprint championship.

Like a number of his Carlton teammates, Aub served his country in World War 2. He enlisted in the AIF on March 20, 1941 and served the 2/20 Battalion in Singapore. Sadly, he became a prisoner of the Japanese in Changi. Aub survived the horrors of captivity to return home. His discharge papers records his discharge with a prosthetic leg, 50% loss of function in one eye and shrapnel embedded in an arm.

His Australian Defence Forces Medical Board records show that he received a wound to his right eye and had grenade splinters to his right arm during fighting in Singapore on 10.2.1942 and then had his right leg amputated because of infected ulcers at Chunqkai camp in Thailand (formerly Siam) on 29.9.1943.

Aub’s daughter, Christine’s, knowledge of Aub’s PoW experience is limited but she can clearly recall the story, told by her aunts (Aub’s sisters), of the amputation having been performed by the legendary AIF surgeon Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop.

Another of the foundation Carlton players was Jack Croft. He was in Changi with Aub.

In Jack’s diary, he makes two references to Aub. Jack notes that on March 16, 1942 that Aub is in hospital with shrapnel damage to his face and eye. He again makes reference to Aub exactly a year later going with D – Force, one of several groups sent out of Changi to work on the Thai-Burma Railway.

Jack’s Diary (23/12/1943) records a conversation with a member of his own unit who recounted his experience of life in the Death Railway work camps;

Train trip was horrible: dysentery broke out on train: marched 190 miles in 14 days: men dropping out but later picked up and taken to a base hospital. Night marches through jungle, rained all time. Natives very hostile: water very scarce and obtainable only by buying from natives: Personal belongings discarded and medical and kitchen supplies carried, most of these also had to be discarded. Soon after arriving at camp cholera outbreak: work consistently of road and railway building. Work proportioned at rate of 1800 men but only 300 men capable: time limit on work and men taken from hospital some had to be carried and others on sticks and crutches. Malaria: Dysentery: Beri Beri; scabies and ulcers took their toll – bodies were piled up or burnt. Rained all time, no roof on buildings and no time to repair them: legs were amputated in the open and only 6 minutes allowed for the job owing to shortage of chloroform: Work inhumanly hard, 3 men to carry logs 20’x12’, also many bashings and deaths therefrom: Hours for work very long and for one month 6am to 3am, less than 3 hours rest, sometimes they worked 30 hours stretch with little rest. Still doing the work of 1800 men with less than 300. Many died like flies. Food in hospital was rationed to 3 dessertspoons of rice and ½ pint gruel per meal. Many deaths from starvation. All stores had to be carried by hospital patients a distance of 15 miles return trip…. doctors did marvellous work …. Personal hygiene lacking and a great percentage of deaths occurred amongst them.

“I remember mum (Ella) telling me when I was very young that dad had said to her when he was coming home from the war, ‘do you still want me with one leg?’ I can’t forget that,” daughter Christine said.

Aub had two daughters. Christine’s older sister Marilyn has passed away. “I was only 14 when dad died,” Christine said. “He was very quiet and didn’t say much about the war.”

“Although he did tell a couple of stories to my cousin Peter.”

“This is what Peter recalls: A group of Aussie soldiers were sitting around having a smoko, chatting. A sniper shoots at one Aussie, just as he laughs. His head tips back, the bullet hits the rim of his helmet and travels around the edge of his helmet, leaving a burn mark around his head. Another shot hits a different Aussie in the mouth, causing a tooth to fall out!”

“Another story is: The Japs found tinned Australian peaches in food stores labelled Jones peaches. They questioned Aub, assuming he was responsible for the production of the product. They took Aub to the kitchen to explain to the Japanese chefs what to do with the contents for Japanese consumption. Grateful for Aub’s help, they said he could eat in the British Officers Mess and gave him a British uniform. He declined the offer. He said the Japs hated the British more than the Aussies.”

While Aub worked for Comsteel, he also spent time in the grocery business, thus following in the footsteps of both his grandfather and father.

His grandfather Thomas was also Mayor of Greta. His father Alfred had a grocery business in Kurri before moving to Merewether after the Greta mines disaster.

“After the war dad worked for his brother Ted in a small grocery business in Adamstown,” Christine said. “He (Ted) made dad a special stool on wheels so he could move around and didn’t have to stand all day,” Christine said.

Prior to playing rugby for the Greens, Aub played for the Cooks Hill Surf Club RUFC in 1929 and Merewether RUFC immediately prior to the amalgamation.

From 1930 to 1940 he played 182 club games for the Greens, 167 in first grade. He regularly represented Newcastle, including against the All Blacks, and Country Seconds against Sydney.

He was the second player in club history to achieve 100 first grade games.

Aub’s six 1st grade Premierships included the Club’s first undefeated season in 1938.

In 1948 Aub became the Club’s fourth Life Member. The first former player to receive that recognition.

FURTHER READING

JACK CROFT 2/15 Field Regiment

Posted on April 13, 2023April 20, 2023 by Merewether.6523

Jack Croft is a Merewether Carlton “original” having played in the Club’s very first game on 5th July 1930 following the then recent amalgamation of the Merewether (previously Cooks Hill Surf Club RUFC) and Carlton Clubs.

With a previous history in Rugby League, Jack played Rugby for the Carlton Club in 1928,29 and in the first NRU Competition of 1930. He went on to play 31 games, all in 1st Grade, for Merewether Carlton from 1930-32.

Jack Croft was a member of the Club’s first 1st grade Premiership in 1932.

Following his enlistment in 1940, Jack’s 2/15 Field Regiment was posted to Malaya in August 1941, by which time he had been made up to Serjeant.

(Jack is centre front in the above photo)

From mid-January 1942 Jack’s unit was engaged in a fighting withdrawal down the Malayan Peninsula and across the Causeway to Singapore Island until the Allied leadership surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February. Two days later, the regiment began moving from Tanglin Golf Course to Selerang Barracks, Changi, into Japanese capture.

Changi PoW Camp comprised the grounds and barracks of the British Military and Naval facility on Singapore.

Jack had been keeping a Diary which is now held at the Australian War Memorial. The following is an extract from the Diary’s Preface, written by Jack’s son.

This typescript was transcribed with considerable difficulty by Sally Nicol from a variety of manuscript sources. The diary consists of a Battle Diary recording action until the Capitulation in February 1942, and then an account of daily life in Changi Gaol and its surrounding work camps until Liberation in September 1945. Early parts of the diary were written clearly on the back side of commercial invoice forms, later entries on various paper scraps, including the margins of books from the Changi Library. As far as I know, the diary was a daily record (except when Jack was ill) and written at the time. It was kept in secure places and under considerable secrecy. Some of the entries were impossible to decipher 60 years later, and some have been lost. I owe a great debt to Sally Nicol for the effort and dedication she put into the transcription over many months. By her efforts my father’s words and life have come into being. It has been a very moving experience for me reading this diary, and I hope it will be for any other reader, who, while not having the benefit of a close familial relation with the diary-keeper, will nevertheless have an insight into what so many men and women suffered in World War Two.
[Julian Croft]

A reading of Jack’s diary will lead to an undoing of the generally held understanding of the Australian servicemen’s experience in Changi.

It becomes apparent to the reader that Jack’s spirit diminishes as his internment goes on and on and on. Apart from his worry about, and lack of news of, his wife, son, and family there is the constant presence of disease and infection from dysentery, beri beri, malaria, scabies, and a variety of other forms of sickness. There are recurring PoW deaths and burials, boredom and being required daily to deal with cockroaches and a variety of bug infestations on a grand scale. He is always malnourished, going from a solid 14 stone weight to under nine.
But a constant theme through the diary is the failure of their leadership and worse – the theft and black-market operations involving food Red Cross parcels, and other essentials intended for all PoW’s. Jack writes often of those PoW’s engaged in the management of the camp food and supplies, the cooks, hospital orderlies, and officers stealing and generally benefiting themselves.

A link to download Jack’s diary is provided at the end of this article.

A chat with Jack’s son, Julian, will give an understanding of Jack being a bloke who liked a drink, a fag and a punt, and as someone not prepared to back off as evidenced by this extract from his Changi diary.

15 June 1942. “Had a bit of a scrap with a cove, pretty good fighter too. It went for about 5 minutes and was then stopped. I don’t think I disgraced myself. I received a split lip and presented him with a disfigured nose, split his eyebrow and gave him a beautiful black eye. He is a pretty powerful cove, not much taller than myself but about a stone and half heavier and 13 years younger.”
Jack’s boxing experience, referred to in the following background provided by son Julian, may have come in handy.

Jack Croft
(for Anzac Day 2023, Mitchell Park, Merewether-Carlton RUFC – by Julian Croft)

Jack Croft — Who was he? What was he like?

Even though I’m his son, I really can’t tell you much from my direct experience. I was born at the end of May 1941, Jack went with the 8th Division AIF to Malaya in September 1941, and didn’t return to Australia until November 1945. He died in Merewether three years later in November 1948. That’s the bare bones. However, years later, I read many of the letters from his friends to my mother after he died, and one of the recurring phrases in them was ‘he was a man’s man.’ You might get some impression of what they meant when you read the diary (almost 400,000 words) that he kept during active service in Malaya and imprisonment in Changi.

Who he was is the easy part.

He was an athlete with local gold medals in Boxing and Rugby League, and, of course, in the premiership Merewether-Carlton team of 1932. In that he followed his father Clarrie, with whom he played in the same first-grade Tighes Hill Rugby League side in 1921. Clarrie also had medals from the Royal Humane Society for rescuing people from drowning in Newcastle Harbour and Newcastle Beach.

Jack was born in 1904 in Union Street, Tighes Hill. The family had lived there for many years. The family was active in politics. His grandfather James Thomas was on the Wickham Council and his brother, Uncle Jack, was in the second draft for the Australian Senate in 1903, as a Labour Senator for Western Australia. According to family tradition, Grandfather James had had a colourful career as a crewman for Bully Hayes (American pirate and black-birder), and had fought with the NSW Contingent in the Maori Wars, for which he was given a land grant in New Zealand. Later in life he set up a business supplying water to shipping in Newcastle Harbour, J. Croft and Son, which was active from the 1890s until the 1960s. In fact, the family had been in Newcastle since 1818 when James Thomas’ father, Jack’s great-grandfather, another James, was appointed Convict Overseer of the Newcastle Gaol, which he ran until the 1840s. He was a Waterloo veteran with the Waterloo Medal and had been transported for Highway Robbery in 1817.

Jack left Newcastle Collegiate School at 16 and joined the Hunter District Water Board as a Clerk, and worked there until he enlisted in 1940. After the War, he took over J. Croft & Son. His father was on the committee of the Newcastle Jockey Club, and Jack had interests in various horses before the War. The family had a very strong tradition of active involvement in sporting and community affairs: the Rocket Brigade, the Volunteer Fire Brigade, Surf Life Saving. That was the milieu Jack grew up in. In the late 1920s the family moved from Tighes Hill to Nesca Parade in Cook’s Hill. So, it’s not surprising Jack took up with Carlton Rugby Club with its original associations with employees of Arnott’s Biscuits factory in Cooks Hill and Cooks Hill High School ex-students and, later, Merewether-Carlton.

Jack didn’t marry until he was 36, which was probably unusual at that time. There seem to have been several girlfriends over the years, but I don’t have any knowledge of them. His relationship with my mother started in the mid 1930s when she was in her early twenties and he was ten years older. The only thing I know about their courtship was that she refused to marry him until he paid off his gambling debts (the horses!), which he dutifully did, and they were married in June 1940.

Her letters to Jack in the first years of their marriage when he was training in the Army are quite delightful and joyful—none of the foreboding you would think given the circumstances of the time. They are now in the National Library in Canberra. For two-and-a-half years after the fall of Singapore I believe she didn’t know whether Jack was dead or alive. One can only imagine the distress this caused to her and Jack’s family in Nesca Parade. Being a wife for a few months, then a mother, and a possible widow all within less than two years would test the mettle of anyone, but she coped, and did her best to welcome home the man she married five years before, but now barely knew. It was a common story of the time.

What we he like?

As to Jack’s temperament, you can judge that from his diary. He had a strong moral sense and was quick to respond to anything he thought was ‘low’ behaviour, often with force, if required. He was contemptuous of those who used positions of power in selfish or dishonourable ways, and, complementary to that, keen to help the disadvantaged, as we can see by his gardening to supply ‘greens’ to the prison hospital for beri-beri patients. ‘Greens’ which were often stolen by other soldiers (or even officers).

My memories of him in the immediate post-War period when I was four to seven are hazy, but I remember a dreamy presence, though a quick temper, and a willingness to ‘do the right thing’ by a boy who really didn’t know what he was supposed to do, or be, to this stranger who was suddenly in the family. It was a familiar experience for many post-War children. We now are more aware that the effects of the battlefield or prison-life are not left on the battlefield or prison, but persist through years in families — all the way from Waterloo through Botany Bay to Changi.

Julian Croft,
Laurieton,
April 2023

FURTHER READING

Incase you missed our story last week introducing Jack Croft and Aub Jones you can view it here.
Jack’s Diary can be viewed/downloaded here
Australian War Memorial – Changi
Anzac Portal – Australian Prisoners of War

JACK CROFT AND AUB JONES OUR ANZAC HEROS

Posted on March 30, 2023April 20, 2023 by Merewether.6523

JACK, AUB HONOURED ON ANZAC DAY
Merewether Carlton will pay tribute to foundation players Jack Croft and Aub Jones at the club’s Anzac Day clash with Wanderers at Townson Oval.

Both men served Australia in World War 2 in different units of the Australian Imperial Force. Despite both becoming prisoners of the Japanese following the fall of Singapore they did return home to their families, although not until some three and a half years later.

The Greens are hopeful that Jack’s son Julian and Aub’s youngest daughter Christine will be part of our round two match on Anzac Day.

The rugby journey for Jack and Aub started long before they left our shores to fight for their country.

Both played for different clubs before they became teammates when Merewether Carlton was formed in 1930.

Jack originally played for the Carlton Club in 1928 and 29, while Aub played for Cooks Hill Surf Club RUFC in 1929. The club changed its name to Merewether RUFC in March, 1930. Each represented those clubs in the NRU’s first competition of 1930 – the Mullally Cup competition which was played from April to June.

Jack and Aub would play for Merewether Carlton in the second NRU competition of 1930 (July to September) – the McCullum Cup. Their first game for the Greens was the Club’s very first on 5 July 1930 at Carrington Oval. (See Herald article 3 July 1930 at the end of this article.

Both Jack and Aub played through 1931 and 32 and to become members of the Club’s first 1st grade premiership in 1932.

Little did they know what awaited them when they joined different units of the AIF.

Jack Croft enlisted in 1940 and was taken into the 2/15th Field Regiment (Artillery). After completing training, the Regiment embarked for Singapore arriving on August, 15 1941.

Following his enlistment in 1941. Aubrey Thomas Jones went into 2/20th Battalion which arrived in Singapore on September 8, 1941.

We are not aware whether Aub and Jack were able to get together in the months leading up to the fighting. Both were stationed on the Malay Peninsula, north of Singapore – Aub with his infantry unit and Jack with his artillery.

The first contact with the Japanese occurred in mid-January and from then on they were in almost constant action in a fighting withdrawal down the peninsula. By the end of January, the last of the Allied troops had crossed the causeway between the peninsula and Singapore Island. The causeway was then blown.

The Japanese attack on Singapore commenced at 10.30pm on February 8.

The defence of Singapore was poorly conceived and conducted. Despite clear indications that the Japanese would concentrate their attack on the island’s north west, the British commander Lieutenant General Percival, sought to defend the entire coastline leaving him with little depth and an inadequate reserve. The 8th Australian Division, considerably weakened after the fighting in Malaya, was allocated the vital north-western sector.

When the Japanese attacked on the night of February 8, 1942 it was too weak and dispersed to hold them back, initiating a disorganised retreat towards the centre of the island. In succeeding days, Percival’s reluctance to commit reserves from other parts of the island, and a virtual command breakdown in the 8th Division, lead to the British Commonwealth forces being pushed back into a steadily decreasing perimeter around Singapore city. It was an untenable position. More than one million civilians remained in the city, the Japanese had captured its main water supply, and their aircraft were free to bomb at will.

At 8.30pm on February 15, 1942, more than 130,000 troops, including 15,000 Australians, were surrendered to the Japanese.

Among the Australians were NX25391 Serjeant Jack Croft and NX71652 Private Aub Jones – two “originals” from Merewether Carlton RUFC.

Jack Croft had been keeping a diary. He would continue to do so under extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances. The following are extracts from Jack’s entry for February 15, 1942;

‘The day opened with very heavy enemy artillery fire and air bombing and further (casualties to us). The positions as regards counter fire and required tasks by the Infantry was the same as yesterday, permission to fire could not be obtained and although we could observe the Japs pulling guns into position on top of hills and the information passed back with a request for permission to engage them, we were still not allowed to fire. These guns later did severe damage to us and caused deaths and casualties; one gun crew of E. Troop being wiped out. Jack Collins from Newcastle was badly wounded by these guns – 4p.m. in the afternoon.

During late afternoon warning of a possible “Cease Firing” was received. Our tempers were not the best since being unable to hit back and this information did not improve them. The Japs could not have received similar orders as they gave us their all.

We received the “Cease Firing” order at approximately 1900 hours to operate from 2030. (This order as far as ceasing did not effect us to any extent we had been unable to receive permission to fire for the last 24 hours.) Naturally our reactions were not in agreement and howls of protest filled the air and then the silence that dropped upon us was deadly, broken only by the crack and bang of snipers firing their explosive bullets at nothing in particular.

Thus ended my short experience as a soldier in the action.
My next experience is to be that of a Prisoner of War.’

Jack and Aub met within a month of their internment which would appear to be their first in Changi. The following is Jack’s diary entry for 16 March 1942;

“Eileen’s birthday. Went to ear specialist about my ear, there is nothing that can be done for it. Met Aub Jones waiting for the Eye Specialist. Poor chap had a grenade burst near his face destroying the sight of one eye, he looked a pitiful job as he also just finished dysentery, he is just a skeleton and very lucky to be alive. Dysentery is getting worse, thousands of cases but only about 30 have died with it.

Their families would not know of their fate until September 1943 – 17 months after the fall of Singapore.