Aubyn Dimmitt

Aubyn WJ Dimmitt BE (1938) was employed by Fogden, Brisbane and Co as a civil engineer in Singapore in oil storage construction at the naval base. He was one of six UWA Engineering graduates whose deaths during the War were commemorated with a prize established in 1946 and now included in the prize for final year Civil Engineering students. The following news item in West Australian 25 October 1945 reported: Mr James A. Dimmitt, M.L.C, has received advice that his son Aubyn, who remained in Singapore at the request of the Admiralty to undertake demolition work, died on an unnamed island where he was shipwrecked with Rear Admiral Spooner and Air Vice-Marshal Pullford, both of whom also died there. His wife and young daughter escaped from Singapore and are resident in Perth. Japanese forces destroyed many of the ships leaving Singapore in the days before the surrender on 15 February 1942. One of the vessels was the ML 310 transporting US Rear Admiral Spooner, RAF Air Vice Marshal Pullford and some 40 others. Attacked by Japanese aircraft, its passengers were stranded on Chibia, an uninhabited island. There was almost no fresh water. Despite British search efforts, the stranded refugees remained on the island for two months before malaria and starvation forced the survivors to surrender.

The West Australian 25 October 1945; Gill, G Royal Australian Navy 1939-1942: Australia in the War of 1939-1945 Australian War Memorial 1957