Joe Starcevich

Ancestors Descendants

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Biography

Joseph Frederick "Joe" Starcevich was born on 20th August 1915 at Mount Margaret, Laverton, Western Australia, Australia. He was the eldest of ten children of Croatian-born Joseph Starcevich, a miner, and his English-born wife Gertrude May, née Waters.^[1][2]

Birth registration : (1841-1932) ^[3]
Surname Given Names Sex | District | Number | and Year
Starcevich | Joseph E Male | Mt Margaret | 64 | 1915

Joe enlisted in the 2nd Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War; enlisted 23rd October 1940, discharged 13th February 1946.^[4] He was posted to the 2/4th Australian Machine Gun Battalion, a unit in the 8th Division. In July 1941 the 2/4th moved to Adelaide and as more of the 8th Division was deployed "up north", by October it was in Darwin with the 23rd Brigade. The division's other two brigades were already in Malaya and Singapore. The battalion left Darwin on 30th December, sailing via Port Moresby. Following a Japanese attack on Rabaul, New Britain, the convey turned around and sailed to Sydney and then Fremantle. Sailing under escort the convoy finally reached Singapore at the end of January 1942. By this time the Japanese had captured Malaya and were preparing to attack Singapore. It was not long before the 2/4th was in action.^[5] Like most of the division, Joe became a prisoner of war following the surrender of Singapore on 15th February 1942.

He endured harsh conditions in captivity including forced labour at Japanese prisoner of war camps at Changi Prison, the Burma-Thailand Railway and Nagasaki, Japan but survived the war. Joe avoided the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 partly because he was hospitalised, after breaking his hip when a tunnel collapsed in a coalmine. A doctor who was also a prisoner of war set Joe's leg without anesthetic or antibiotics, and using the only metal pin available: a spoke from a bicycle wheel.^[6]

Putting the horrors of war behind him as best he could, Joe married Myrtle Allsop in 1948 in Perth. Reverse Western Australia Marriage lookup ^[7]
Surname FirstName | District | Number Sex | Year | SpSurname SpFirstName
Starcevich Joseph F | Perth | 432 M | 1948 | Allsop Myrtle E

In 1951, Tom and Joe Starcevich jointly obtained and commenced working a 4,300 acres (1,700 ha) soldier settlement wheat and sheep farm at Carnamah, Western Australia.^[8]

Joe Starcevich passed away on 27th May 2007 in Western Australia.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ Western Australia Birth Index #64/1915
2. ↑ Mount Margaret Field and the gold mines (1914)
3. ↑ Pioneers Index wa.gov format change 1906/1954
4. ↑ Australian War memorial nominal roll: WX8758 Private Joseph frederick Starcevich; accessed 22 Jan 2019
5. ↑ Australian War memorial unit record: 2/4th Australian Machine Gun Battalion; accessed 22 Jan 2019
6. ↑ The Hon. Peter Foss, 2004, "Anzac Day Amendment Bill 2004 Second Reading", Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Parliament of Western Australia, 28 September 2004, p4
7. ↑ A Perth DPS project
8. ↑ "Joe" Joseph Frederick Starcevich : in Carnamah Historical Society & Museum
9. ↑ unsubstantiated family records

Links

Project:Anzacs Link
Western Australia Links:
RSLWA Home. | | State War Memorial | and Cenotaph in King's Park