On 27 August 1945, the last of the Allied Prisoners of War who had been marched from their camp in Sandakan to the village of Ranau were brutally murdered by their Japanese captors. This day saw the tragic end to the story of how the POW's at Sandakan, including Gordon cricketer Les Holland, experienced continual privation, hard labour, brutality, appalling living conditions and death.
Leslie Urban Holland moved from Bathurst as a sixteen-year-old in 1934 and lived at 147 Ashley Street, Chatswood. He was the son of Ambrose and Elizabeth Holland. Les was a keen cricketer at school and was looking to develop his skills in the Sydney Grade cricket competition with Gordon.
