Each week until August this year, the Cowra Guardian will feature a short story from the Cowra Prisoner of War camp in the lead up to the 75th anniversary in August this year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Commemorations and wreath layings will take place on August 4 and 5.
Not all those who die in wars do so at the hands of their enemies. Until very recently Australia recognised the deaths of four Australians by Japanese prisoners of war escaping on August 5.
Privates Ben Hardy and Ralph Jones were killed while manning their Vickers machine gun and each was posthumously awarded the George Cross.
Private Charles Shepherd was stabbed and killed by the only Japanese POW who made it over the northern gate of Broadway and Lieutenant Harry Doncaster from the Military Camp, abandoned by the young recruits he was leading, was ambushed and killed by a group of POW on a hillside on the Canowindra Road. The recapture of the last Japanese would be nine days later.
Two days after the breakout and some 50 kilometres away, the men of C Company, 26 Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps at Blayney, were preparing for a patrol of railway lines and bridges.
The potential for these assets to be compromised by Japanese POW who had escaped from Cowra had been raised by the Department of Railways.
Captain Ewin, the C Company Commander, had the patrol approved. He arrived at C Company Headquarter by truck, with 53 year old Sergeant Thomas Roy Hancock and two other soldiers.
As they dismounted the vehicle one of the solders was removing his rifle from the front seat of the truck when it discharged, hitting Hancock in the buttocks. The local doctor arrived within five minutes and Hancock was taken to hospital where an operation was performed.
His condition then appeared to be stable and his recovery was expected however on the August 14 his temperature rose. On August 16 his condition worsened and rapidly deteriorated and he died of septicaemia.
A Court of Inquiry found the death to be accidental and that the rifle whilst loaded as was required, had a possible faulty safety catch.
Sergeant Thomas Hancock is buried at Blayney Cemetery and is recognised as having died as result of requirements for service due to the Cowra Breakout.
