Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

16/09/1941

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Hal'

Date of Birth

12/09/1909

Place of Birth

Launceston, Tasmania

Address (at enlistment)

Geerilong Gardens, Reid, Canberra ACT (DVA WW2 Nominal Roll shows Canberra NSW)

Occupation

Commonwealth Bank clerk

Next of Kin

Son of Arthur Joshua and Alice Irene Buttsworth; husband of Ella Annie Merrie Buttsworth, of Geerilong Gardens, Reid, Canberra ACT.

Burial Place

Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan: Australian Section, grave B. D. 14.

Service Number

NX44870

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

2/19 Infantry Battalion AIF

Died 18 December 1944 aged 35 years, of illness, Japan.

AWM Roll of Honour, Canberra ACT: Panel 40
St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Forrest, Canberra. Screen in Warriors' Chapel.

Buttsworth worked for the Commonwealth Bank and was transferred to Canberra in 1939 shortly before he married. He enlisted in September 1941 and embarked from Sydney with the 2/19 Battalion in January 1942, arriving in Singapore two weeks before the Japanese invaded the island on the night of 8 February 1942. He was made a prisoner of war when the Japanese captured Singapore on 15 February 1942. After being imprisoned in Changi, in March 1943 Buttsworth was sent to the Tarsao POW camp in Thailand and in September 1944 he was shipped to the Fukuoka camp in Japan. He died on 18 December 1944 as a result of acute enteritis, aged 35 years. Before the war Buttsworth served as a committeeman for the Acton Football Club, carrying on a love for Australian Rules football from his days as a player at North Hobart. He was survived by his wife, Ella, and his baby daughter, Anne, whom he never got to meet.

Australia. Department of Veterans' Affairs. World War 2 nominal roll. <http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/>
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Debt of Honour Register. <http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search/>
AWM Roll of Honour and Roll of Honour Circulars <http://www.awm.gov.au/database/roh.asp>
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)
Ross F. Rowe, 'The Building and Furnishing of the Presbyterian Church of St. Andrew's', 1992
ACT Electoral Roll - 1941
Acton Football Club Annual Report 1940, Thelma Mackinnon papers, John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library
http://www.australia.or.jp/en/hodogaya/halwyn_buttsworth.php - article by Anne Buttsworth
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Hal Buttsworth - Prioner of War', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
The Canberra Times - 25 April 1942, 20 July 1942, 26 April 1946, 15 November 1948
Information and images courtesy of Anne Buttsworth