New headstones for three recently identified burials in Papua New Guinea
22 November 2012
After 67 years three casualties buried in Port Moresby
(Bomana) War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea have been identified and
have been given a new headstone.
The graves were confirmed as the resting places of
Lieutenant Scobell McFerran-Rogers, Private John Whitworth,
and Bapak Roestan. They were identified after
investigations of the Australian Army Unrecovered War Casualties
Unit. They were members of Z Special Unit of the Australian
Army, and were killed by the Japanese when operating behind the
lines in what was then the Celebes in the closing months of the
Second World War.
The rededication ceremony on 6 November 2012 included family
members of the three men, Special Operations Commander
Australia, Major General Gus Gilmore, Parliamentary
Secretary Richard Marles MP and Henry Fawkes, the sole
surviving member of the patrol in which the three men died.