The Labuan Memorial just inside the gates of the Labuan War Cemetery is a colonnaded forecourt with bronze panels. On the panels are the names of those officers and men of the Australian Army and Air Force with no known grave who died while prisoners of war in Borneo and the Philippines between 1942–1945. Also commemorated on the column panels are those who lost their lives during the recovery of Borneo from the Japanese. A number of men belonging to the local forces of Brunei, North Borneo and Sarawak, who were killed on war service and who have no known grave, are also commemorated here.

Wally Dyer’s name is engraved on Column 23 of the Labuan Memorial.

[Carolyn Newman]

Wally Dyer from Neutral Bay in New South Wales is one of the many Australians whose name is engraved on Column 23. Private Wally Dyer was a member of No 2 Company, Australian Army Service Corps, 27th Infantry Brigade, AIF. Imprisoned with other members of the 8th Australian Division in Singapore in February 1942, Wally was transported to Sandakan in North Borneo with 'B' Force in July 1942. According to official records Wally was 26 years when he died on 24 June 1945, but members of his family state that he put his age up to enlist. They believe that he was actually only 23 years old when he died. Wally was one of the more than 400 Australian and British prisoners of war who died during the second death march from Sandakan to Ranau in May–June 1945.

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