© Waddingtons of Bendigo 2016
Vic. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment of VX53606
Private Harold Francis Waddington, 2/29 Battalion.
He was one of 145 men who were massacred by the Japanese at Parit Sulong on 22 January
1942 during the Malaya Campaign when wounded Australian and Indian soldiers were left
behind by withdrawing troops after the Battle of Muar. They were rounded up by the
Japanese and forced to surrender all of their belongings including their clothes, which were
later returned. The men, now Prisoners of War (POWs) were beaten, tormented and denied
food, water and medical attention. At sunset on the night of 22 January 1942, the men were
roped or wired together in groups and led into the jungle where they were shot with
machine guns, doused with petrol and set alight. Only Lieutenant Ben Charles Hackney and
VX52333 Reginald Arthur Wharton survived, feigning death despite repeated brutalities by
the Japanese.
Private Waddington, aged 33, was the brother of Reginald Waddington of Bendigo, Vic.
(Photograph copied from original attestation form lent by the Central Army Records Office)