Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Driver/Private Vernon Augustus Longman (Service No: WX21302) served in the AIF from 23 March 1942 to 17 January 1945. Driver Longman was posted in Northam, Merredin and Bunbury with 35 Australian Infantry Training Battalion (AITB), 8 Petrol Coy and 37 and 38 Australian Coys ASC. He was attached to 1 Australian Ordnance Vehicle Park at Discharge on 17 January 1945.

Bernie was born in Armadale, WA in 1908, eldest of seven children of George Edward Longman (b1883 in Victoria Plains (New Norcia), WA) and Josephine Benedict Kelly (b1889 in Victoria Plains (New Norcia), WA). George was a Labourer in Mardoo, New Norcia when he and Josephine married in 1909 in Victoria Plains, and settled in Watheroo where they raised their family and George worked as a Contractor and Farmer. In the early 1950s they moved to Perth.

Bernie worked in Watheroo and Namban via Guildford as a Farmhand and in 1940 was a Farmer in Coomberdale when he enlisted in the Army. Following his Discharge, Bernie returned to Namban, where he was a Farmer in 1949 when he married Violet Grace Hawkings (nee Paine; b1908 in Jubbulpore, India) - Violet had immigrated in 1924, arriving in Fremantle WA from Mesopatamia with an older brother and sister on board the Majola. Bernie and Violet lived in Namban and Dandaragan, where Bernie was a Farmer before moving in the early 1960s to Greenmount, where Bernie worked as a Labourer and Parking Attendant. Violet died in 1968 and Bernie in 1980.