Ross Drabble

(1917-2008)

Ross Drabble, serving with the Royal Australian Air Force (R.A.A.F) was captured at the Fall of Singapore iin 1942 and spent 3 and 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in the Japanese Sendai Prisoner of War Camp, on the island of Honshu in Japan. He spent the last 30 years of his life living peacefully at 25 View Terrace in East Fremantle, with his family.

Ross Drabble was born in Goomalling on 6 January 1917. His father George Drabble (1875-1954) had married Hestor Lotan (1879-1968) in Bedfordshire UK in 1904. In March 1911 the family left London, and sailed on the Australind to Fremantle. Hestor (aged 31) travelled with children: Ethel Mary (1902-1990) aged 9, Francis (1908-1953) aged 3, Howard (1909-) (2) and Lawrence Andrew (1910-1912) (7 mths)

Ross and his older brother Keith (1914-1945) were both born in Goomalling.  

Keith Drabble, a miner, was the first of the three Drabble brothers to enlist in May 1941 aged 27. He embarked for the middle east in Nov 1941 and served in Ceylon in 1942 and New Guinea in 1945. He was fined several times for misconduct and being absent without leave. He returned to Australia and died on 11 Nov 1945 of injuries received after falling down stairs in Darlinghurst, while on leave in Sydney. After a coronial inquiry his body was buried in the Sydney War Cemetery.

Howard Drabble (1919-1974) enlisted in Dec 1942. Howard had a colourful life: In 1931 he worked as a taxi driver in Fremantle. (reference) He miraculously escaped death when a

“heavy piece of a stone and mortar ornament became dislodged from the top parapet of the Horseshoe Hostel at the corner of Murray and Pier streets, and crashed through the hood of a car in which he was seated. His left shoulder was struck by the falling masonry.” (reference)

In 1933 his car exploded and was destroyed by fire as he drove to Kalgoorlie, where he worked as a painter and was also known as professional boxer- with the title ‘Bob Fitzsimmons’. (reference) In 1934 Howard (as ‘Bob’) was the Goldfields welter and middleweight boxing champion. He also went up against ‘Cyril Pluto’, who was the reining WA Welterweight champion, but was defeated. (reference)

In Nov 1938 Howard, who worked at a mill in Boulder accidentally inserted his little finger into a cog at the mill while painting machinery. He was accused of deliberately doing this to obtain compensation money for a married woman he was in love with… the charge was ultimately dismissed although his love life was made very public. (reference)

 In 1942, when he enlisted, not surprisingly, army records show Howard excelled at unarmed combat and was recommended as an instructor. He spent 1944 in Darwin, NT and was discharged in Feb 1946 as a Seargent. After the war Howard resumed his job as a mill operator in Kalgoorlie and in 1949 was accused of unlawfully having gold in his possession. Although he said the gold was ‘planted ‘on him Howard was sentenced to jail for 4 months. (reference)

Ross Drabble (AUS29962) was a Leading Aircraftsman in the Airforce (Squadron 1) at Sembawang, the Naval Base in Singapore, when it fell to the advancing Japanese army in February 1942. (reference) The ‘Fall of Singapore’ resulted in the largest British surrender in history. About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops in Singapore became prisoners of war. Ross was one of 8 Australians held at Ohasi Camp (now called Ohashi) on the island of Honshu in Japan alongside 40 Americans, 56 British, 198 Canadian, and 93 Dutch servicemen.

1943 One of the first P.O.W. card(s) from any R.A.A.F. prisoner in Japan has been received in Perth. Prisoner is LAC Ross Drabble of South Perth who is interned at Hakodate Camp 2 in Hokkaido, one of the islands which forms Japan proper. This, too, is one of the first times that this camp has been referred to. A P.O.W. card received by his parents, Mr and Mrs George Drabble, of Canning Highway, South Perth, was the first news they had of LAC Drabble since the fall of Singapore. He asked his parents to send him tobacco and concentrated foods, said he was "still going strong." Before joining the R.A.A.F., LAC Drabble was electrical engineer on the Moonlight mine at Wiluna. He was educated at Christian Brothers' College, Perth, has two brothers in the A.I.F. (reference)

Ohashi was the site of an iron mine and every day the prisoners walked two miles to work in the mine. Beatings were commonplace and Ross was singled out for a brutal beating by camp guard Seisaku Toma…

“There is reference to the name of the camp. It was a bit like Hogan's Hero's. The American radio operator built a radio and they had it in the camp. They knew when the bombs had been dropped, which ultimately ended the war in the pacific. Captain Zeigler (The highest ranking POW) saved my grandfathers life after he was nearly beaten to death. There is a record in the National War Museum in Canberra from one of the Australians which records life in the camp. There were only 8 Australians in the camp and the diary survived the war and has a record of the beatings and daily treatment the Japanese guards dished out.” Correspondence with Matthew Hanssen 2022

1945 Relatives in WA continue to hear news of freed prisoners of war. Mr and Mrs George Drabble, of Canning Highway, South Perth, have been advised that their son- Leading Aircraftsman Ross Drabble, is safe in Australian hands. (reference)

In early October 1945 Ross arrived in Perth by air on a Liberator from Java via Darwin. (reference) and recuperated with his parents. (reference)

1947 JAPANESE GUARDS ON TRIAL -TOKIO, July 15. Two former civilian guards at Hakodate prisoner of war camp pleaded not guilty today when they were tried by the American Eighth Army Commission in Yokohama for having allegedly beaten Australian and other Allied prisoners of war. The accused are Kioyoshi Ogasawara and Seisaku Toma. The victims included Capt. Edward Campbell, of St. Kilda, and Mr. Ross Drabble, of Duncan-street, Victoria Park, formerly of Canning highway. South Perth. (reference)

Toma only received a one year sentence for his crime- due to him having already been in detention for 15 months prior to the Commission. After the war Ross applied to receive a share in money that was distributed to ex-prisoners of war of the Japanese.

6 Jan 1947 The engagement is announced and the marriage will take place shortly of Hilder (sic) Frances Kennedy, younger daughter of the late Mr. Alfred Gude and Mrs. Gude of No 1 Duncan-street Victoria Park to Ross Drabble younger son of Mr. and Mrs. George Drabble of 152 Canning-highway. South Perth. (reference)

Hilda Frances ‘Bub’ Gude was born in Boulder in 1913. She had already been married- to a serviceman who did not return from a prison of war camp. She had married Lionel James Kennedy (1910-1943) in Oct 1939 in Perth. (reference)

4 Dec 1943 For the first time for nearly 22 months Mrs L. J. Kennedy, of 13 Second Avenue, South Perth, received advice from the Army recently telling her that her husband is a prisoner of war in Japan. Before this Sergeant Lionel (Ned) Kennedy was reported missing, believed killed. Before enlisting he was a member of the permanent forces at the Fremantle barracks in a heavy artillery unit. Kennedy left W.A. with about 20 other members in July 1941, was last heard of from Timor on February 12, 1942: (reference)

L/Sgt Kennedy died whilst a prisoner of war in Dec 1943 and was buried in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand. Hilda was left a widow with a twenty month old daughter Lionelle Frances, born 8 April 1942, who never met her father. (reference)

In 1947 Hilda Frances Kennedy married Ross Drabble and he brought Lionelle up as his own daughter and they had a son Ross.

1 Feb 1949 Birth- Drabble, at St. John of God Hospital, Subiaco, to Bub and Ross, of Victoria Park – a son (Ross Gilbey). Both well. (reference)

From 1951 Ross ran his own business Drabbles Electrical Service, electrical contractors, at 129 Shepperton Road, Victoria Park - which succesfully serviced both industrial and domestic projects. At one time he had 12 men working in his company and won many Government electrical contracts including the Augusta Hospital, Victoria Park Training Depot (1954), the rewiring of the Lord St Drill Hall in Perth, (1955) and as a state government (PWD) preferred supplier wired up countless schools around Perth, until 1965. (reference)

In 1954 his father George died:

DRABBLE (George): On Jan. 28. at Perth. loving father of Ross, kind father-in-law of Bub and granddad of Rossie and Lionelle. Peace at last. (reference)

In 1967 Ross Drabble and Hilda Frances Drabble, trading as Drabbles Electrical Service, went into bankruptcy. (reference) They managed to pay off their third and final dividend by June 1971. (reference)

In 1975 Hilda Drabble purchased 25 View Terrace, East Fremantle and named it ‘Horizons’. The house was always painted white and had terracotta tiles on the roof. The original property went all the way from View Terrace to Pier Street. They lived in the house from 1975 – 2005 with grandsons Mathew and Paul Hanssen. Ross worked as a contractor in the area.

In June 1995 Hilda died, aged 82. Her asshes were scattered at Fremantle Cemetery.

Ten years later in 2005 Ross left 25 View Terrace.

Ross Drabble was suffering from emphysema in Hollywood Hospital, when he died in 2008, at the age of 91.

Researched and written by Jo Darbyshire with the help of Ross Drabbles grandson Matthew Hanssen 2022