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Lieutenant Colonel
Ernest Edward Dunlop
Known as ‘Weary’ Dunlop
1907/07/12 - Born Major's Plain, Victoria
Son of James and Alice (nee Payne) Dunlop
Younger brother to Alan
1910 - Family moved to a farm near Stewarton
Attended Stewarton Public School and Benalla High School.
In 1924 he commenced a pharmacy apprenticeship at Benalla.
Dunlop moved to Melbourne in 1927 and attended the Pharmacy College. Excelling in his studies. Dunlop had been a school cadet, and he continued his part-time army service until 1929 when he won a scholarship in 1930 to Ormond College, Melbourne University to study medicine.
It was at Melbourne he was nicknamed "Weary", derived from ‘Tired Dunlop Tyres’. He graduated in 1934 with first-class honours.
Weary loved sport and in 1932 he was the first Victorian-born player to represent the Wallabies, in the Australian Rugby Union team.
Australian Army Medical Corps
2/2 Casualty Clearing Station
Service
Weary re-enlisted in 1935 and was commissioned into the Australian Army Medical Corps on 1st July with the rank of Captain.
In May 1938 Weary left Australia for London on a ship, serving as medical officer. In London he attended St Bartholomew's Medical School and in 1938 became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
When WW2 broke, Weary was appointed to medical headquarters in the Middle East, where he developed the Mobile Surgical Unit. In Greece he was involved with forward medical units and Allied headquarters. He was then transported to Tobruk as a surgeon, until the Australian Divisions were withdrawn for home defence. On the way to Australia the troopship was diverted to Java.
On 26th February 1942, he was promoted to temporary Lieutenant Colonel.
Java surrendered to the Japanese on the 8th March 1942.
Japanese PoW
1942/03/09 - Captured Java
PoW No. J-827
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1943/01/04 - Transported in Usa Maru with Java Party 6 to Singapore
1942/01/07 - Arrived Changi with 1910 PoWs
1043/01/20 - Transported overland to Thailand, train 7
Attached to Group 4
New PoW No. IV 6501
Weary found himself responsible for Australian POWs in camps along the Thailand Burma Railway line, working at:-
Kannyu, 152 km from Nong Pladuk
Hin Tok, 156 km from Nong Pladuk
Hin Tok River, 156 km from Nong Pladuk
Kinsaiyok, 161 km from Nong Pladuk
Tha Sao, 125 km from Nong Pladuk
Chungkai, 60 km from Nong Pladuk
Tha Muang, 19 km from Nong Pladuk
New PoW No. 53479
Nakhon Pathom
1945/08/30 - Liberated Nakhon Pathom.
As senior medical officer, he had watched strong young men deteriorate into walking skeletons within weeks, with Malaria, dysentery, cholera, tropical ulcers that ate through muscle to bone, Beri Beri, pellagra. Weary performed amputations on dying soldiers using a carpenter's saw and no anaesthetic in Thailand PoW camps. Standing between his patients and their Japanese guards, taking savage beatings so his men would not be harmed.
Weary spent the rest of his life haunted by the ones he couldn't save.
Post War
In 1947 Weary received the Order of the British Empire, O.B.E.
In 1965 he was awarded the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, C.M.G.
Weary was Knighted in 1969
In 1989, Dunlop published ‘The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop, Java and the Burma Thailand Railway, 1942- 1945’. This was a volume compiling many of his wartime diaries from the Pacific War.
Sir Ernest Edward Dunlop died 7th July 1993 in Melbourne.
He had a state funeral held at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, which was attended by more than 20,000 people. Some of his ashes were scattered at Hellfire Pass in Thailand.
In June 2008, Weary was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame. He was the first Victorian so honoured.
A bronze statue of Edward Dunlop at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. This statue commemorates all Australian doctors and medical staff who served Australian prisoners of war in the Asia-Pacific region between 1939 and 1945.
Information
Judy Campbell
Andrew Snow - Thailand Burma Railway Centre
Java Index
Japanese Transports
Thailand Burma Railway
Australian War Memorial
London Gazette
KEW Files:- WO 361/2044, WO 361/2214, WO 361/1957,
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