Fergus Roy Braham
Stephen LearmonthFergus Roy Braham was born on January 16th, 1922, in Cottesloe, Western Australia, to Roy Gilbert and Sheila Bryan (née Macleod) Braham.
Fergus’ father, Roy, served with the 1st AIF during WW1. He enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corp (Dental) and rose to the rank of captain, serving in the United Kingdom. Due to the ill health of his brother, Godfrey, and on account of there being a number of qualified and registered dentists who were awaiting AIF appointments, Roy received permission to return to Australia in early 1918. Before enlisting, Roy had been in partnership with Godfrey in a dental practice at 5 Ventnor Avenue in Perth, Western Australia. In 1920, Roy married Sheila Bryan Macleod in Perth. Sometime during the early twenties, after Roy had been born, the family moved back to Victoria and took up residence in Cohuna. A further move during the 30s was made to Queenscliff, before finally taking up a dental practice at Corryong in 1937. It was here that Fergus took up the position of a dental assistant with his father.
During his time in Corryong, Fergus was a member of the local scout troop and, according to his attestation form, had spent two years in the 8th Light Horse. Fergus enlisted in Albury, NSW on the 15th of July, 1940, being given the Regimental Number VX48320. Initially, he was taken on strength with the RRD Caulfield before being transferred to the 2/23rd Battalion (Albury’s Own) at Albury. On the 25th of November, he was once again transferred, this time to the 2/4th Anti Tank Regiment based at Puckapunyal in Victoria.
After completing his training, his unit embarked on HMT ZZ (Zealandia) at Port Melbourne on the 23rd of May, 1941, disembarking at Singapore on the 9th of June. Fergus’ unit was to be assigned to the 8th Division, which had been deployed to Malaya as the possibility of war with Japan grew closer to becoming a reality.
While undergoing training, Fergus was injured. This would see him once again transferred. He was accidentally injured while undertaking a gun drill; the hand spoke of the gun striking his knee. This then aggravated an existing injury that he had received earlier in his training. As he was incapacitated, he could not perform his duties as part of a gun team so, on the 20th of September, he was transferred to the 2nd Echelon and HQ Administration with the rank of Bombardier.
On the 15th of February, 1942, the garrison commander of Singapore, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, commanded all remaining forces to surrender. This explains the next entry in Fergus’ records indicating that on the 16th of February, 1942, he was listed as missing in action. It was not until June, 1943, that he was listed as a prisoner of war. Fergus had become one of over 15000 Australian soldiers who surrendered during the fighting along the Malay Peninsula.
It is known that whilst a POW, Fergus was sent to Malai Camp, in Thailand. This was one of many camps that were used for POWs working on the construction of the Burma Railway. Not much is known of Fergus’ time as a POW. It is known that he died of an inflammation of the inner lining of the colon, or colitis, on the 30th of September, 1943, although this was not known by the Australian authorities until October, 1945. Acute colitis was most likely the result of severe dysentery brought about by poor diet and camp hygiene. Fergus was originally buried near the camp. After the war, the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery (which contains over 3000 Allied servicemens’ graves) was created by the Army Graves Service and transferred to it all graves along the northern section of the railway, which included Fergus’. Thanbyuzayat was the western terminus of the Thai-Burma Railway.
Fergus is remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, the Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, and the Corryong War Memorial. For his service, he was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the Pacific Star, the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945.
