Blog
THE STORY OF SQUADRON LEADER KEITH ‘BLUEY’ TRUSCOTT
Published in Wings Magazine THE PRICE OF BEING A HERO Only once did he end up in the frigid English Channel awaiting rescue. It is not known why his war service in England only came to 10 months. His promotion was rapid — a Pilot Officer in February 1941 and Acting...
MERLE HARE (nee STORRIE)
Merle Hare (nee Storrie) is an iconic figure in the ACT naval community. Remarkedly spry, she continues to live independently in the same villa she has called home for 25 years. Merle doesn’t use a stick but suggests she is slowing down. Merle Hare is 105 years of...
Fury To Hell
Albert ‘Bert’ Adrian Stobart was born on 11 April 1921, in Sandringham, Victoria, to John and Beatrice. Initially hoteliers in the gentle green English countryside, his parents migrated across the world to the strong colours of Australia. The family moved to the...
May 1942, Submarines in Sydney
On the evening of 31 May 1942 allied warships flying the flags of several nations moved gently at their moorings in Sydney Harbour. HMAS Canberra was nestled off Farm Cove close to the iconic bridge. From Canberra’s decks the US heavy cruiser Chicago was visible in...
Roma, Queensland, bottletrees, and the brief for the Queen.
It was 2000 and I received an assignment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, to write a ‘brief for the Queen’. It certainly would be a good addition to the CV, if indeed I was allowed to cite it as such (alas I wasn’t). The assignment nonetheless sounded...
Just a Simple Post Card #2
It came in the post, and it was wonderful, a pretty lace postcard from a terrible war. ‘A Kiss from France’ for a mother. He remembered her birthday but given the irregular mail and distance the card had to journey around the world Sapper Horace Mervyn Herrod (6672)...
Just a Simple Post Card #1
Victor Charles Friberg was born to Anders and Amelia Friberg of ‘Mootala’, Locksley Road, Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Victoria. The family enjoyed a stable middle-class lifestyle thanks to the furniture manufacturing business Anders had established. Victor entered the family...
A LEGEND BY THE NAME OF VIVIAN
It was a Midshipmen and Cadet Mess Dinner at the Australian Defence Force Academy in the late 1990s. I was teaching History and Strategic Studies at UNSW at ADFA so was asked to attend as a guest with my husband. These mess dinners were to instruct aspiring Australian...
Lieutenant Elaine Balfour-Ogilvy, AANS
It was in the blood, the military heritage thing. She had been raised on the stories; khaki uniforms had filled her home. Her father was born in Ireland in 1876 with the grand name of Harry Lort Spencer Balfour-Ogilvy. From a very prominent Renmark family he was a...
An Unloved Painting that led to a mine descent!
It all started with a rather beaten up discarded painting.
Mesopotamian Half Flight: the very first Military Australians to fly
On 30 December 1911 the Australian Government advertised for ‘two competent mechanics and aviators’ to be appointed to the Department of Defence. One of the requirements was for the applicants to advise if they were married or single perhaps an indication as to the...
Director WRANS, Captain Joan Streeter.
(25 April 1918–14 April 1993) Joan Streeter was born on 25 April 1918 in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. She entered the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) as an Assistant Wran Writer WR625) on 25 January 1943. Following her training at HMAS Cerberus,...
The Mystery of AE1
Robyn Rosenstruss would visit her grandmother in Balmain, Sydney, where the elderly lady would gesture to the small timber chest of drawers which took pride of place in her home. ‘That’s Jimmy’s Box’ she would say. Robyn the child never knew who ‘Jimmy’ was – she...
Hilda Mary Knox
Oh, these poor men! It is simply heartbreaking. Sister Hilda Knox, June 1915. Hilda Mary Knox was born in the pretty Victorian town of Benalla on 29 December 1884. Positioned on the banks of the Broken River it was a pleasant environment in which to grow up. Her...