Marcus Louis Goodwin

  General Notes:

Marcus served in the Royal Australian Navy. In February 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for "bravery and enterprise in the Battle of Cape Matapan whilst serving on the HMAS Stuart as an Ordnance Artificer 3rd Class. "The Battle of Cape Matapan was a naval engagement fought from 27\endash 29 March 1941. The cape is on the southwest coast of Greece's Peloponnesian peninsula. A force of British Royal Navy ships accompanied by several Royal Australian Navy vessels, under the command of British Admiral Andrew Cunningham, intercepted and sank or severely damaged several ships of the Italian Regia Marina under Admiral Angelo Iachino." (Wikipedia)

Marcus was serving on the HMAS Perth when she was sunk in the Java Strait in February 1942. He was picked up, along with others, by a Japanese submarine and taken to Java. He spent 4 years as a P.O.W. "Of the 681 sailors aboard, 353 were killed in battle. All but four of the 328 survivors were captured as prisoners of war: 106 died in captivity, and the surviving 218 were returned home to Australia after the war." (Wikipedia) Marcus was one acontingent of survivors who were sent to Thailand on 8 October 1942 and forced to work on the notorious Thai-Burma railway. 14 officers and 256 men worked on the Thai side and 1 officer and 14 men on the Burma side.

He continued to serve in the Navy after the war ended, retiring in the 1960's.

Marcus married Doris Ruby Tobias, daughter of John William Tobias and Lizzie Edith Curthoys.