Number VX27881

Battalion 27 Brigade Coy, Australian Army Service Corps

Place of Birth. Melbourne 25 September 1920

Next of Kin Beatrice Edwards his mother Son of Ernest and Beatrice Amy Edwards, of Frankston, Victoria.

Date and place of enlistment 27 June 1940 at Caulfield

Location on enlistment Meeniyan

Occupation. Motor mechanic

Date and place of death 12 September 1944 in the sinking of the Rakuyo Maru in the Luzon Strait, South China Sea. He was aged 24.

Location of grave or memorial

He is remembered on the Labuan Memorial and the Leongatha Memorial.

Relationship to Woorayl Shire

He was from Meeniyan

Military History

In September 1944 the Ruyuko Maru was transporting 1317 Australian and British POWs from Singapore to Formosa (Taiwan). The soldiers were survivors of the Thai Burma railway had recently returned to Singapore from Burma and Thailand. On 12 September the vessel was attacked by three US submarines. It was sunk by the USS Sealion. Some of the POWs survived on rafts and were rescued a few days later. In all 1159 POWs, including Herbert, died.