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An Australian engineer officer who was executed by the Japanese in World War II has been posthumously presented the Resistance Memorial Cross by the Netherlands defence attaché.
Lieutenant John Leslie Appleby was an escaped prisoner of war and member of the Dutch Resistance on Java, before being betrayed, recaptured and then executed by Japan in 1943.
Born in Sydney in 1916, LT Appleby joined the Citizen Military Forces as an engineer officer after the Second World War broke out.
He first served in the Middle East with 2/6th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, and after achieving victory in Syria, was returning home before his unit was sent ashore at Batavia (now Jakarta) to help the Netherlands East Indies forces defend aerodromes and oil supplies from the advancing Imperial Japanese Army.
However, the Australians were ordered to surrender in March 1942 when the Japanese forces proved too strong.
A number of soldiers instead "took to the bush” and most were recaptured, however, LT Appleby was never seen again and his fate only became known when his former commanding officer, Major Leslie Robertson, investigated in the 1980s.
The Netherlands Resistance Memorial Cross was posthumously awarded to LT Appleby by the Netherlands in the 1980s, but never claimed.
Head of Corps, Royal Australian Engineers, Brigadier John Carey, accepted the award on behalf of LT Appleby from Lieutenant Colonel Elmar Hermans, Kingdom of the Netherlands’ defence attaché to Australia and New Zealand.
The Netherlands Resistance Memorial Cross will be placed in the Prisoner of War display at the Australian Army Museum of Military Engineering at Holsworthy Barracks, Sydney.
LT Appleby was also awarded the Australian Commendation for Gallantry in 2018.
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