Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

07/06/1940

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

19/05/1920

Place of Birth

Newcastle NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Canberra NSW (sic, DVA WW2 Nominal Roll)

School(s) Attended

Telopea Park Primary School (July 1925-1933)

Occupation

Apprentice electrician with ACT Electricity Authority.

Next of Kin

Son of James and Mary Ann Gellatly, of 4/48 Griffith, Canberra ACT. Brother of 24671 Leading Radio Mechanic William Gellatly RAN, HMAS Leeuwin.

Burial Place

Body never recovered.

Service Number

NX30883

Final Rank

Lance Sergeant

Final Unit

HQ 27 Infantry Brigade AIF (Australian Army Ordnance Corps, attached to 2/26 Infantry Battalion, on AWM Roll of Honour database)

Died 9 July 1945 age 25, of malaria at Ranau, Borneo, during the Sandakan Death March.

AWM Roll of Honour, Canberra ACT: Panel 58.
Labuan Memorial, Malaysia: Panel 9.
St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Forrest, Canberra. Screen in Warriors' Chapel.
Canberra High School Memorial Tablet

Before the war Gellatly had been a piper in the Canberra Highland Society Band. He served with the 2/26 Battalion which arrived in Singapore in August 1941. He became a prisoner of war when the British garrison at Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in February 1942. On 29 March 1943 Gellatly was sent to Berhala Island, Borneo (adjacent to Sandakan Harbour) as part of 'E' Force and then to Sandakan, Borneo in June 1943. In early 1945 the Japanese began to send POWs on a series of forced marches inland to Ranau - the Sandakan death marches. Gellatly left Sandakan on the second march on 29 May 1945 and made it to Ranau but died of malaria (according to the Japanese) on 9 July 1945 at Ranau No.2 Jungle Camp. A dixie, belonging to Gellatly, was later recovered by locals.

Gellatly is remembered on the Labuan memorial. The Labuan Memorial was primarily intended to commemorate the officers and men of the Australian Army and Air Force who died while prisoners of war in Borneo and the Philippines from 1942 to 1945, and during the 1945 operations for the recovery of Borneo, and who have no known grave.

Australia. Department of Veterans' Affairs. World War 2 nominal roll. <http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/>
AWM Roll of Honour and Roll of Honour Circulars <http://www.awm.gov.au/database/roh.asp>
AWM Collections Record: P02467.223
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Debt of Honour Register. <http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search/>
Presbyterian Church of Australia. Church of St Andrew, Canberra. Form and order for the dedication of the memorial window and memorials in the Warriors' Chapel, Sunday, 14th November, 1948. Canberra, 1948
The Echo [quarterly newsletter of the Presbyterian Canberra Parish of St Andrew]: no. 12, December 1945 (p.4)
Barbara Petersen. Acts of faith: the story of the Church of St Andrews, Canberra. Gundaroo, Brolga Press, 2001 (p.60)
Ross F. Rowe, 'The Building and Furnishing of the Presbyterian Church of St. Andrew's', 1992
Canberra High School. Unveiling of Memorial Tablet. Friday, 25th April 1947. [Programme]
Canberra High School. Roll of Honour 1939-1945. [Plaque in school]
Canberra High School. Albums compiled for student project researching names on School Roll of Honour, 1985.
Nauenberg, Miriam. Index to Telopea Park Primary School: Register of admissions 1923-1946. Typescript compiled for the Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra.
Telopea Park Primary School: Register of admissions 1923-1946. Volume (a): Boys. Photocopy MS held by Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra.
Lynette Ramsay Silver, 'Sandakan: A Conspiracy of Silence', 1998
ACT Electoral Roll - 1941
The Canberra Times - 15 August 1942, 2 November 1945