Geoffrey Herbert Donald Voss (1905 - 1942)

Born 1905 in Forest Hill, nr Lewisham, London, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 1 Jul 1942 at about age 37 in At Sea

Biography

Rev. Geoffrey Voss was a Prisoner of War during World War II.

Rev. Geoffrey Voss died as a prisoner of war on the Montevideo Maru during the Second World War.

Geoffrey Herbert Donald Voss was born in 1905 in Forest Hill, near Lewisham, London, England, the son of Herbert Voss, a french polisher and his wife Edith Wenham.

Geoffrey's father Herbert became an alcoholic and deserted their family not long after he was born. Herbert was sumonned to pay maintenance for his children. A report of the court case appeared in the Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette, in October 1907. ^[1]

In 1911 Geoffrey was a patient at Yarrow House, Broadstairs, Kent which was a children's convalesence home. He was 5 years old. ^[2]

Geoffrey was an Anglican clergyman, ordained in Broken Hill, NSW in 1934.^[3] He had moved to the New Guinea Territory in 1935, stationed at Arawe on the south coast of New Britain.^[4] In Jun 1938 after a furlough in the Riverina Diocese of NSW, he was with the Melanesian Mission at Au in New Britain.^[5] He was not married.

He was a teacher for the New Guinea Territory administration in Rabaul when the Japanese invaded in Jan 1942. He was captured and interned as a civilian prisoner. He died on board the "Montevideo Maru" when it was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of the Philippines on 01 Jul 1942.

Sources

1. ↑ Findmypast Newspaper Archives
2. ↑ Findmypast 1911 census
3. ↑ http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49523759
4. ↑ Pacific islands monthly : PIM; Vol. VI, No. 2 ( Sep. 24, 1935); p.65 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234075055
5. ↑ Pacific islands monthly : PIM; Vol. VIII, No. 11 ( Jun. 22, 1938); p.24 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234081335

• Birth - UK GRO Births index - VOSS, GEOFFREY HERBERT DONALD; WENHAM; GRO Reference: 1905 J Quarter in LEWISHAM Volume 01D Page 1197

• Death Form - National Archives of Australia - Defence - General - Information of deaths for persons lost on the MONTEVIDEO MARU - https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=102239&S=184

• Probate Notice - http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article249061662

• Photo - Pacific islands monthly : PIM; Vol. VIII, No. 11 ( Jun. 22, 1938); p.8 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234081291

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission - https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/3173374/the-rev-geoffrey-herbert-d-voss/