Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Samuel Victor Templeton (1900 – 26 July 1942) was an officer in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He is well known for his actions with the 39th Battalion as the commander of 'B' Company during the First Battle of Kokoda and went missing in action on 26 July 1942 near the village of Oivi. ''

Templeton's Crossing Templeton's Crossing is a locality on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea. The original track, at the start of the Kokoda Track campaign, proceeded north from Kagi and crossed over the Drainage divide, watershed of the Owen Stanley Range as it passe ...

'' was named in honour of Captain Sam Templeton. It is the first point where the Kokoda Track, from Port Moresby, crossed Eora Creek.

Search for his remains

Wayne Wetherall, a PNG campaign historian and the founder of the Kokoda Spirit trekking company, travelled to Japan in 2009 to meet

Kokichi Nishimura was a Japanese soldier and businessman who devoted his post-retirement years to traveling to Papua New Guinea to recover the remains of his former comrades and other Japanese soldiers who died during the Second World War. His life was described ...

, one of the last survivors of the Japanese 144th Regiment to ask him about Templeton. Templeton's son Reg wanted to know what had happened to his father, as there had been various conflicting stories, none of which were confirmed. Nishimura believed that he had buried Templeton, and said that he had not been present at Templeton's death, but that he had been captured and, when interrogated before Lieutenant Colonel Hatsuo Tsukamoto, commander of the 144th regiment, lied and said, "There are 80,000 Australian soldiers waiting for you in Moresby," and laughed at Tsukamoto, who became enraged and killed him with his sword. Nishimura said that he later found the body with a sword or bayonet blade protruding from its side, and buried it because of the smell. Nishimura returned to PNG in 2010 at 90 years of age, and showed Wetherall the place at which he believed Templeton was buried, but no body was found there.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Templeton, Sam 1900 births 1942 deaths Australian Army officers Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian military personnel killed in World War II Missing in action of World War II Military personnel from Belfast