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Albert’s younger brother, Ambrose ‘Amos’ Khan (NX7133), was born 1909 in Singleton, New South Wales. He enlisted in Singleton, a couple years before his older brother, in 1939. Private Ambrose was among a number of Singleton men going to the war. He served in the Australian Army and held the rank of Corporal. While serving in the Middle East, Private Amos Khan, wrote a letter to his aunty in Australia saying how the army in difficult time initiated him into challenges to maintain contact with of his Aussie mates. After coming out from England, he said, he was put ‘into hospital in Egypt for a few weeks’. In Egypt Ambrose thought about his mates all the time, but they were deployed on different battlefields, fighting in the campaign in Libya, Greece, Crete and Syria. While still in Egypt, he travelled a lot, ‘trying to pick up the old boys, and missed going to Greece by two days”. When he met them again, he was happy ‘to see all the old faces with the exception of one, who, he believed was a prisoner’. Those who he met were Bill, Dick, Clarke and also Geoff, a bit earlier. However, ‘quite a few of them have not turned up yet. They are a few miles from here’, he said. Altogether, these soldiers encountered different conditions that would have been entirely alien to them; nevertheless, it was the mateship that kept alive their pride and dignity and to hold formal military association drives that would quite possibly develop lasting and valuable friendships.


From the book:

Dzavid Haveric, 'A History of Muslims in the Australian Military from 1885 to 1945: Loyalty, Patriotism, Contribution', Cambridge Scholars Publishing, London, 2025.