Captain Samuel Victor Templeton (1900 – 26 July 1942) was an officer in the Australian Army during the Second World War.

[1][2] Wayne Wetherall, a PNG campaign historian and the founder of the Kokoda Spirit trekking company, travelled to Japan in 2009 to meet Kokichi Nishimura, one of the last survivors of the Japanese 144th Regiment to ask him about Templeton.

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.