Winston Ide

Who is Winston Ide?

Winston Philip James Ide was an Australian rugby union player. Ide played two Tests for the Australian rugby union team in 1938.

Ide was a member of the Wallabies team sent to tour Great Britain in 1939. The outbreak of World War II saw the tour cancelled the day after the team had arrived at Plymouth.

On return to Australia, Ide joined the Second Australian Imperial Force and was sent to Malaya with the 2/10th Field Regiment. He was captured during the Fall of Singapore and interned in Changi Prison as a prisoner-of-war. Ide was later forced by the Japanese to work on the construction of the Burma Railway.

In 1944 Ide was boarded on the Rakuyo Maru—a Japanese "Hell Ship"—to be taken to Japan to work. The Rakuyo Maru was sunk in the South China Sea by a torpedo fired from the USS Sealion, an American submarine. The Americans were unaware the ship was transporting Allied prisoners-of-war. Refusing to climb aboard a liferaft, Ide assisted in the rescue of many of his fellow prisoners-of-war. Responding to requests to save himself, Ide was reported to have said "I'm staying here ... In any case, I can swim to Australia if I have to".