LIEUT. O. G. ELLIOT

FIRST NAMES: Orlando Grahame

NUMBER: 69278

RANK: Lieutenant

UNIT: 7 Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery

DOB:1912

STATUS: Killed in Action (Executed)

DATE OF DEATH: 5th March 1943

WHERE BURIED: Port Moresby

MEDALS: 1939-45 Star, Victory Medal, Defence Medal


Orlando Elliott was born in 1912 and was the son of Jack and Mrs Elliott of Leeming Bar Station and brother to Cyril. Orlando won a scholarship to Northallerton Grammar School in 1926 and left in 1929.

On the outbreak of war he volunteered for the army and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. By 1941 he had been promoted to Lieutenant and was posted to the 7th Coast Battery stationed in Singapore. At the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Orlando was captured along with a group of 600 artillery men when the Japanese overran their position. From there they were taken to the Solomon Islands, first to Rabaul and then to the Island of Balali were they were forced to construct an airfield.

On the 5th March 1943, almost all of the 600 men, including Orlando, were massacred by their Japanese guards. Only 16 of them survived the war. Local natives informed the War Crimes Commission and the recovery of the bodies took place in 1946.

All the bodies were taken and buried in a mass grave in Port Moresby in New Guinea.

Orlando Elliott is remembered on Column 3 of the Kranji Memorial Singapore. He is also remembered on the Grammar School Plaque and in the FEPOW War Graves Archives.

Orlando was aged 31 years.