Historical information

The Age newspaper dated Monday January 15, 2024, page 30 - Obituaries - Frank McGovern October1,1919-May 24,2023 WW2 great survivor lived to be 103 -
In 1939 McGovern aged 19 enlisted in the RAN and served on HMAS Westralia for 18 months prior to being deployed to HMAS Perth. On February 28 1942, two weeks after the fall of Singapore and having survived the Battle of Java HMAS Perth together with USS Houston entered the Sunda Strait coming into contact with the Japanese invasion convoy. HMAS Perth was vastly outnumbered and with no ammunition remaining the order came to abandon ship. Frank survived the sinking but 347 sailors including his older brother, ultimately perished. Frank became a prisoner of war and put to work on the Burma Railway for 12 months prior to being transported along with over 1000 Australian and British prisoners aboard the Rakuyo Maru to Japan. On September 12 1944 Rakuyo Maru and another prisoner transport ship were struck by American torpedos. As a result 1559 POW’s perished of which 543 were Australian. For the second time Frank survived a torpedo attack only to become a prisoner of war. Frank was a prisoner of war for 3 1/2 years and in 2019 was awarded the Order of Australia for services to veterans and their families, HMAS Perth Association and HMAS Perth Prisoner of War Association.

Physical description

Black frame containing newspaper article with three images