In Memory of
WILLIAM JOHN STARLING
Private NX73105
A.I.F. 2/30 Bn., Australian Infantry
who died on
Tuesday, 15th February 1944. Age 35.
Additional Information:
Son of Watty and Blanche Elizabeth Starling, of Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia;
husband of Elsie May Starling, of Parramatta, New South Wales.
Commemorative Information
Cemetery:
KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY, Thailand
Grave Reference/
Panel Number:
1. C. 45.
Location:
Kanchanaburi is 129 kilometres west-north-west of Bangkok. Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
is situated in the north eastern part of the town along Saeng Chuto Road, Within the
entrance building to Kanchanaburi War Cemetery will be found the Kanchanaburi Memorial.
It is in the form of a bronze memorial tablet recording the names of 11 soldiers of the
army of undivided India, buried in Muslim civil cemeteries in Thailand, whose graves are
unmaintainable.
Historical Information:
The cemetery is only a short distance from the site of the former "Kanburi"
Prisoner-of-War Base Camp, through which passed most of the prisoners on their way to
other camps, and is the largest of the three war cemeteries (two in Thailand and one in
Burma) on the notorious Burma-Siam railway. It was created by the Army Graves Service
who transferred to it all graves, save American graves, from camp burial grounds and
solitary sites along the southern half of the railway from Bangkok to Nieke. Most of the
base camps and hospitals were in this area and the total number of burials in the
cemetery is nearly 7,000. This figure includes 300 men who died during an epidemic at
Nieke Camp and were cremated, whose ashes now rest in two graves in the cemetery.
Their names are commemorated on Portland stone panels in the shelter pavilion which
stands at the end of one of the two main avenues, facing the Cross of Sacrifice at the
intersection of the avenues and the Stone of Remembrance at the opposite end. In this
register the addition of the words "Spec. Mem." against the number of the grave
indicates
that the casualty is one of the men whose names appear on the panels. Over the two
graves are bronze plaques bearing the inscription "HERE ARE BURIED THE ASHES OF 300
SOLDIERS WHOSE NAMES ARE INSCRIBED IN THE MEMORIAL BUILDING IN THIS
CEMETERY". In the entrance building is a bronze memorial tablet recording the names
of
11 soldiers of the army of undivided India, buried in Muslim civil cemeteries in Thailand,
whose graves are unmaintainable.
Copyright The Commonwealth War Graves Commission