Qualla: Labuan War Cemetery

Labuan War Cemetery: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. Of the roughly 2,500 Allied prisoners of war held at the Sandakan camp in North Borneo, only six Australians survived the war. The rest -- British and Australian soldiers, many already weakened by years of forced labor -- died on three brutal marches through 260 kilometers of jungle, or were killed by their captors as Allied forces closed in. Most of those who perished were eventually brought here, to neat rows of white headstones on a gentle slope overlooking the South China Sea. Labuan War Cemetery holds 3,922 graves, making it the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in Southeast Asia outside of Singapore. More than half the headstones bear no name.

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Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Labuan War Cemetery: The Marches That Emptied a Camp

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Sandakan Death Marches remain one of the worst atrocities against Allied prisoners of war in the Pacific theater. Beginning in January 1945, Japanese forces ordered three marches from the Sandakan POW camp to Ranau, roughly 260 kilometers through dense Borneo jungle. The pris...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Labuan War Cemetery: Two Victoria Crosses, Side by Side

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Among the headstones lie two recipients of the Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth's highest military honor. Corporal Jack Mackey was a 22-year-old from Sydney's Leichhardt suburb -- stocky, red-haired, known for his exuberant humor. On 12 May 1945, during the Battle of Tarakan, he ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Labuan War Cemetery: The Other Camps

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sandakan's dead are not the only prisoners resting at Labuan. Approximately 500 graves were transferred from Kuching, where the infamous Batu Lintang internment camp had held British and Australian prisoners of war alongside civilian internees. The cemetery also contains the grav...

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Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Labuan War Cemetery: What Remains

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cemetery today is immaculately maintained, its lawn trimmed to a uniformity that contrasts sharply with the chaotic jungle where so many of its occupants died. The headstones stand in precise rows, each one cut from Portland stone shipped from England. A memorial wall records...

Read more: Labuan War Cemetery on Qualla

Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0