RAF LSGC group to LAC Heard taken prisoner by the Japanese on Java

1939/45 Star

Pacific Star

Defence medal

War Medal GVI Royal Air Force Long Service & Good Conduct Medal. Correctly impressed - 330958 LAC J L Heard RAF.

 

Condition GVF

 

John Lennox Heard Jr was born in Alverstoke, Gosport, Hampshire, on 24th September 1903. The son of John and Eva, his father, was a Musician in the Royal Marines. 

 

Heard was serving with the 153 Mantaince Unit, RAF on Java, when the Japanese took him, prisoner, at Tasikmalaya on the 8th March 1942, one day after Java surrendered. 

 

He was held at Janmaarkt POW Camp from March 1942 until April 1943. Heard was imprisoned at Haroekoe POW Camp between April 1943 and October 1944; the prisoners constructed an airfield, which Heard probably worked on. 

 

From October 1944  until April 1945, when he was liberated, Heard was in St Vincent Hospital and POW Camp in Batvia. 

 

After the war, heard settled in Fareham, Hampshire and passed away in 2001, aged 98.