Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

27/08/1941

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

12/03/1909

Place of Birth

London, England

Address (at enlistment)

Bingara NSW (previously Canberra ACT)

School(s) Attended

Melbourne University, Cambridge University

Occupation

Religious Minister

Next of Kin

Helen Vellacott (wife), Bingara NSW

Service Number

NX43665

Final Rank

Lance Corporal

Final Unit

13 Australian General Hospital

Died of illness in Thailand on 19 Decmeber 1943

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 88, Canberra ACT

Vellacott was the son of a Presbyterian Minister in Yorkshire and migrated to Australia under the Big Brother scheme. He studied for the ministry at Melbourne University and completed his studies at Cambridge University in England. He returned to Australia and took up a post at the newly constructed St. Andrew's Church in Canberra also serving the Presbyterian Church at Braddon. He and his wife stayed for a year before moving to his own charge at Bingara in northern NSW.

Vellacott enlisted in August 1941 and left for Singapore in December 1941 with the 13 Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Medical Corps. He worked in the hospital at St. Patrick's College where he was stationed when captured by the Japanese in February 1942. He was promoted to Chaplain while imprisoned in Changi but he resigned his commission to go with F Force and the 8th Division Signals as a medical orderly to work on the Thailand-Burma railway. He died as a prisoner of war from beri-beri and cellulitis on 19 December 1943.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Prisoners of War and Missing in the Far East and South West Pacific Islands
Ron Irlam, 'Murder by Marching'
The Canberra Times - 19 October 1938, 2 November 1938, 27 September 1945
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883