Special Investigations
Special investigations:
Besides research work undertaken for her books, Lynette Silver also carries out historical investigations in other areas. These include
- investigating suspect claims made by various individuals in regard to war service
- investigating reports of possible burial sites of defence personnel still officially missing in action and assisting, on an honorary basis, the Unrecovered War Casualties Unit (Department of Defence) in investigating, searching for, and possibly recovering, ‘lost’ remains
- identifying graves of military personnel buried as’ unknown’
- investigating incidental mysteries
Fraudulent Military Service:
The list of those exposed for making untrue claims in regard to war service include:
‘Pilot’ Sidney Stocks, who concocted an amazingly action-packed war, including being taken POW and miraculously escaping.
Jack Wong Sue, a behind-the-lines agent who claimed, among other things, to have witnessed the last of the three infamous Sandakan death marches, despite the fact that at the time of the march he was thousands of kilometres away at a secure allied base being treated for, and recovering from, a life-threatening illness.
Arthur Rex Crane who, for 22 years, received the highest level of disability pension from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, based on a completely fabricated war service record, which included being a prisoner of the Japanese for more than three years. Lynette, with the help of researcher Di Elliott and Jenny Sandercock, a family historian, proved that this charlatan was, in fact, a school boy in Adelaide during WW 2, and had never enlisted in any branch of any defence force. Having committed major fraud against the Commonwealth of Australia, he was tried and sent to gaol in December 2010.
Lynette, with co-researcher Di Elliott, also exposed ‘Major’ Reg Newton, ‘MC and Bar’, who was an undecorated private in an army reserve unit. They also unmasked the identity of a WW1 soldier, known as Marcel Caux, who had passed himself off as a Frenchman for more than eight decades. The story of his amazing deception, which lasted until his death in 2004, has been published in Marcel Caux A Life Unravelled. (For more information, go to Books)
The individuals nominated above will be among those included in a new book by Lynette Silver dealing with military frauds. Further information on various frauds unmasked in Australia and New Zealand in recent years, by Lynette and others, has been published by an organisation known as Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors (ANZMI).
Possible war graves:
In the course of her research, Lynette occasionally comes across information leading to the location of a previously unknown burial site. In 1993, she was invited by the British government to search for the remains of a British sailor, Sub-Lieutenant Grigor Riggs, whose fate had been revealed in 1990 her book The Heroes of Rimau. As part of the official investigation team she travelled to the Indonesian island of Merapas, in the Riau Archipelago, where, after receiving expert advice from a forensic anthropologist in Sydney, she was responsible for overseeing the search. Later that year, a funeral service was held in Singapore for Riggs and for Australian commando Colin Cameron, another member of the ill-fated Operation Rimau team, whose skull had been found by an islander some years before. For a full and updated account of the action that led to the deaths of these two men, and of the search for the remains, see Deadly Secrets. More information on Operation Rimau is at Memorial Projects/Rimau Historic marker.
Lynette oversees the work at Merapas Island
Military funeral in Singapore for Riggs and Cameron
In 2010, following the location of a large number of WW1 remains in France, a special unit, Unrecovered War Casualties, was established by the Australian Defence Department to investigate the veracity of reports of unrecovered remains, submitted by members of the public. This unit draws on the expertise of a number of investigators and historians, including Lynette, who has followed up several reports of allegedly unrecovered remains in West Malaysia, Sabah, Timor, Java, Papua New Guinea and the islands. In March 2011 she was part of a team that spent the more than two weeks excavating a killing field at Parit Sulong, West Malaysia, to determine if Australian and Indian troops, taken prisoner and subsequently massacred there in January 1942, had been buried in a mass grave at the site. For a full account of this investigation, see Parit Sulong, The Search for Remains.
Following up a report in Sabah
Laying the ground work at Parit Sulong
Grave identifications:
As a direct result of her three decades of research work, Lynette has become a recognised expert in locating and identifying graves containing the remains of ‘unknown’ military personnel. All have been buried in graves with headstones inscribed ‘Known unto God’.
Her identifications include
Labuan War Cemetery:
*denotes KIA
**denotes executed
 Labuan War Cemetery |
 Cleary |
 Quailey |
- Adlington, Private Norman 5 B 3
- Bendall, Private Bertram 5 B 4
- Bignell, Private Kenneth 14 C 3
- Blatch, Gunner Wallace 14 C 4
- Burns, Private Robert 16 D 4
- Christie, Corporal Neil 16 D 10
- Cleary, Gunner Albert 21 E 6
- Cook, Captain George** 12 D 8-12
- Cummings, Sergeant Norman 5 B 1
- Davies, Private Evan 19 C 6
- Gardner, Gunner Walter (Crease)** 10 D 13
- Glover, Sapper Sydney T D 14
- Harris, Corporal Syme 16 D 5
- Jones, Private Herbert 16 D 6
- Lytton, Private Herbert 21 E 9
- McAppion, Sapper Henry 9 A 7
- MacKenzie, Private Douglas** 5 B 1
- Morriss, Able Seaman George 20 D 1
- Murray, Private Richard** 21 E 7
- Newling, Private Rolf 19 C 7
- Nicholson, Private John 21 C 6
- Oakeshott, Captain John** 12 D 8-12
- O’Dwyer, Sergeant James Joseph* 5 D 5
- Ovens, Gunner Hugh 16 D 7
- Pallister, Private Robert 17 D 9
- Picone, Captain Domenic** 12 D 8-12
- Quailey, Private Allan** 25 E 3
- Reynolds, Driver Charles 17 D 10
- Roberts, Private Stanley 19 C 8
- Sheard, Gunner Wright** 25 E 4
- Skinner, Private John** 20 C 12
- Walter, Gunner Roy 25 E 5
- Watts, Private Ellis Roy 21 B 15
- Wright, Private Colin 19 C 9
British:
- Burgess, Flying Officer Humphrey** 12 D 8-12
- Daniels, Captain Frank** 12 D 8-12
Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore:
Australian forces:
- Cameron, Sergeant Colin Barclay 32 E 2*
- Campbell, Corporal Archie Gordon 23 D 19*
British forces:
- Davidson, Lt Cdr, Donald M N 23 D 20*
- Riggs, Sub-Lt James Gregor 32 E 4*
Ambon War Cemetery, Indonesia
Australian forces:
- Hearle, Sergeant Herbert Francis** 3 B 1
- Witham, Sergeant William Douglas** 3 B 2
Buried in a civil cemetery – officially recognised war grave:
British forces:
- Chester, Lt Colonel George Francis Leach Old Christian Cemetery, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
This grave, when located in 1999, was in a state of neglect. However, with the help of local people interested in preserving history, it was ungraded, along with the cemetery generally. Later, with the help of Michael Chin, of Kota Kimabalu, Lynette was able to prove that Chester’s death in 1946 was due to a war-related condition. This resulted in not only his grave being recognised as a ‘war grave’ but also his ‘elevation’ to Lieutenant-Colonel, his substantive rank at the time of his death.
Chester's grave 1999
Grave after restoration
Buried in Civil cemeteries, individual graves not located:
(cases pending before CWGC, for burial sites to be acknowledged)
** denotes execution
Australian forces:
- Bell, Sergeant Joseph Kenneth** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
- Greenup, Gunner Clive Robert (Sandakan, Sabah)
- Liversidge, Lieutenant Eric Joseph (believed to be buried Dili, Timor)
- Pace, Lance Corporal Hugo Joseph (Dili, Timor)
- Warne, Private Douglas Richard (Surabaya, Java)
- Willersdorff, Warrant Officer Jeffrey (Dili, Timor)
British/Indian forces:
- Graham, Lieutenant Ronald** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
- Hancock, Captain Bernard C** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Harvey, Lieutenant William Percy** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
- MacDonald Giffard ‘Mick’ Douglas** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Vanrenan, Lieutenant Frank** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
Dutch forces:
- van Crevald, Flight Sgt Jan** (Cheras Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
Incidental mysteries
Lynette Silver’s research work also includes solving incidental mysteries, for the sheer fun of it.
The Accordion Man
One such example was identifying an ‘unknown’ Australian prisoner of war. Released from a Japanese POW camp in Java in 1945, he had been photographed shortly after his liberation wearing a battered slouch hat and playing a piano accordion. It was an engaging image, and historians at the Australian War Memorial were keen to identify the soldier, whom they dubbed ‘The Accordion Man’. With very little to go on, they had no success, until they made an appeal for help through the media. The challenge was something that Lynette and her long-time research colleague, Di Elliott, could not resist. They rose to the occasion and, within one hour, had solved the mystery.
accordion man -- Extract from Hobart Mercury (Tasmania) 1 November 2010
Larrikin’s Tale finally Told
HE’S a faded face from Australia’s military past, dubbed the Accordion Man, and for many years he has been without a name.
However, when military historian Lynette Silver and fellow researcher Di Elliott took an interest in his identity following an appeal by the Australian War Memorial last month, it didn’t take them long to track it down.
They believe this man, photographed in a Japanese-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, is Tasmanian infantryman Harold Clyde Conley.
His story is that of a rogue soldier who was keen to serve his country in fact, possibly faking his way into the military but whose love of a drink and tendency to go absent without leave littered his service history.
But with the luck of the devil, he also survived more than three years in a POW camp in Java, Indonesia where this photo was taken in September 1945.
Mrs Silver, of Wahroonga, and Mrs Elliott began their investigation into the identity of the soldier in September after the Australian War Memorial made a public appeal to help identify the Digger.
Mrs Silver said they tracked down the Accordion Man’s identity with the help of an old newspaper clipping chronicling Conley’s return to Hobart. A photograph showed him to be the same man in the POW photo.
They also discovered he had lied about his age on enlistment, claiming he was 39 because the cut-off age was 40.
Conley was in fact 43 years old.
Mystery solved!