West Australians Killed in the Korean War

  Sergeant Everett Fitzpatrick was born in Nottingham, England in 1921.   His family emigrated to Perth, and he attended the Christian Brothers College in Fremantle, where he was an army cadet. Fitzpatrick enlisted for service in World War II in May 1940. Photo of Fitzpatrick supplied by his niece.  https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/617307 During WWII Fitzpatrick was captured by the Japanese in Timor in early 1942 and taken to Singapore to Changi Prison. His name (Gunner E. M. Fitzpatrick) appears in a published list of Changi POWs in the Australian press in 1945. [1 ]   He arrived back in Perth in October 1945 with other POWs on the liner Strathmore. [2] Fitzpatrick rejoined the army in 1950 to go to Korea.   When he left Perth to travel to Japan for training for the K force, Fitzpatrick left behind his wife who he had married earlier that year. [3]   Fitzpatrick arrived in Korea with the Third Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, (3RAR), at the end of September 1950.  

  Sergeant Bernard Cocks was unknown to me until I saw his name on the new Perth Korean War Memorial.   His name isn’t on the RSL list of West Australians who died in the Korean War nor on the State War Memorial. But a quick search on TROVE showed me that Cocks died a hero’s death when he sacrificed his life to save wounded comrades in May 1953.   For this he was Mentioned in Dispatches. Headlines from Kalgoorlie Miner, 21 May 1953, article on p. 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article256917675 Cocks was born in Collie in 1921 and grew up in North Perth.[ i] , but his place of association was Balgowlah in Sydney which would explain why his name is on the Manly War Memorial and the Manly Library has a factsheet on his war service. His mother was still living in North Perth at the time of his death. Cocks was one of nine children and the second of four sons of Mr. and Mrs. K. Cocks of North Perth.   He enlisted for service in World War II in Claremont in January 1941 and joined the 1