Arthur Leggett OAM

Born September 8, 1918, in Sydney. He enlisted in the army in 1936, part of the Cameron Highlanders of Western Australia. He was as part of the 2/11th Battalion, in the Battle of Bardia in January 1941, the first battle fought by Australian troops in World War II.

By May of that year, Mr Leggett had been deployed with his battalion to Crete, where the German Airborne Division commenced its assault. Ten days of intense fighting ensued, with planes and German paratroopers cluttering the sky. On May 30, the decision was made to surrender.

Mr Leggett was captured and put into Nazi Germany prisoner of war camps, where he was made to work 12-hour days in coal mines. In 1944, Russian advancements towards the war camps prompted the Germans to relocate — the Lamsdorf Death March — 800 kilometres through heavy snow.

Arthur Leggett was the last surviving World War II army prisoner of war in Western Australia and received a State Funeral on May 10 2025.

Mount Lawley Senior High School named its library the Arthur Leggett OAM Library in 2018.