Known as The Labuan Memorial: it consists of a colonnade forming a forecourt immediately inside the wrought iron gates of the main entrance to the cemetery.

On the inner faces of the pillars are bronze panels on which are engraved the names of those whom it honours. The dedicatory inscription is on the frieze facing the entrance. Some of those whose names appear on the memorial are undoubtedly buried in unidentified graves in this cemetery.

The memorial should not be confused with the memorial at Surrender Point which is next to the Peace Park.

The Labuan War Cemetery is the only war cemetery in North Borneo and contains, as well as the graves from Sandakan, about 500 from Kuching where there was another large prisoner of war camp. The cemetery also contains the graves of 892 identified and 308 unidentified Australians from the Second World War. The total number of burials is 3,908. The preponderance of unidentified graves is due to the destruction of all the records of the camps by Colonel Suya, the Japanese commandant, before the Australians reached his headquarters in Kuching. When apprehended, Suya committed suicide rather than face questioning on his conduct of the Borneo camps.

The Labuan Memorial within the cemetery commemorates a further 2,225 Australians. The memorial was primarily intended to commemorate the officers and men of the Australian Army and Air Force who died while POW's in Borneo and the Philippines from1942 to 1945 and during the 1945 operations for the recovery of Borneo, and have no known grave. A number of men belonging to the local forces of North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei who were killed on war service and also have no known grave, are honoured here.

Constructed and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Jalan Tanjong Batu Road, Victoria, Labuan Island, Malaysia.

The Labuan Memorial stands immediately inside the main entrance gate to the Labuan War Cemetery. The Cemetery is on the small island of Labuan (part of Sabah, Malaysia) in Brunei Bay, off the coast of north-west Borneo. The Cemetery lies on the Jalan Tanjong Batu Road, which leads from the airport to the town. It is less than a kilometre from the airport and about 3 kilometres from the island's town of Victoria.

For more information: www.cwgc.org