© Waddingtons of Bendigo 2016 
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Introduction The Emigrants First Generation Second Generation
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)
Waddingtons of Bendigo