8th Australian Division Signals Company

8th Div Signallers awaitng to board ship for Malaya.

Colour Patch HQ 8th Division Signals

Brief History

HQ 8th Divisions Signals was formed at Liverpool, NSW in July 1940. 1 Company served Divisional HQs and the Cavalry Regiment, 2 Company served the artillery units, and 3 Company the Infantry Brigades. In September the unit moved to Ingleburn, and to Bathurst in November and during that time many of the 8th Division Units were transferred to the 9th Division and moved with it to the Middle East.

With increasing tension with Japan, a Brigade from the 8th Division was sent to Malaya, with another split between Darwin and Rabaul. More of the Signals unit moved to Malaya in in June 1941, and the rest joined them in August. The 8th Division was tasked with defending Jahore, placing the 22nd Infantry Brigade Group on the east coast near Mersing, and the 27th Infantry brigade Group held in reserve. The Japanese landing was followed soon after by the need of the 8h Division to fall back down the archipelago to Singapore, arriving there by the end of January 1942. Here many of the signallers were formed into ad-hoc infantry units to strengthen the forward units. Following a fierce but short battele teh British and Australian troops were forced to spend the rest of the war as POW's.

185 men died whil posted to this unit, some of them when the US Submarine sank the Rakuyo Maru transporting them from Singapore to Japan.

Individual Awards

• 1 x Offiver of the Order of the British Empire
• 1 x Member of the Order of the British Empire
• 1 x Military Cross
• 1 x George Cross
• 1 x Distinuished Conduct Medal
• 2 x Military Medal
• 1 x Commendation for Gallantry
• 9 x Mentioned in Despatches

Unit Personnel

• William Albert Arthur Parkin 23 July 1940 - October 1946