Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Ivor McLelland Hancock (Service No:VX28538) enlisted in the AIF on 19 June 1940 and was posted to 2/40 Battalion. On 15 November 1940, Private Hancock was attached to 2/24 Battalion when he embarked with his Unit from Melbourne for the Middle East. Reported Missing at Tobruk on 1 May 1941, Private Hancock was confirmed a PoW (No:26647) on 11 July 1941, and was interned at Bengazi (Libya; May - December 1941; War Work), PG (Campo) 57 and PG (Campo) 106 in Italy (1943; Railway and Farm Labour), Stalags IV B, F and G (Germany; 1944/1945; Railway and Benzin Refinery Labour). Private Hancock made an escape in Italy, but was recaptured by Fascists in Switzerland. Recovered from Germany on 7 May 1945, Private Hancock was evacuated to England, embarking from there for Melbourne on 6 October 1945, and was attached to 2/24 Battalion at Discharge on 8 October 1946. His father Harold served in WWI and WWII, and younger brother Billy served in the RAAF in WWII.

Ivor was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1921, eldest son of Harold William Hancock (b1900 in Wiltshire, England) and Myrtle Irene Butt (b1899 in Melbourne, Victoria). Harold had immigrated in 1911 with his parents and siblings, arriving in Fremantle on board the Ophir and moving to Balingup, Western Australia. Harold was working as a Sleeper Hewer in Mallalyup via Balingup when he enlisted in the AIF in 1915. Following his Discharge, Harold worked in Greenbushes, Western Australia as a Telegraph Messenger before moving to Melbourne, where he was a Railways Shunter in 1920 when he and Myrtle married. Harold continued to work for Victoria Rail as a Shunter and Repairer in Melbourne, Pura Pura and Terang. Following Myrtle's death in 1938, Harold remarried, and he and Renie settled in Melbourne where, from the end of WWII, Harold worked as a Clerk and then as a Watchman.

Ivor was a member of the Essendon Rowing Club and Brunswick Cycle Club, and worked in Melbourne as a Railways Labourer and an Iron Worker before enlisting in the AIF in 1940. He returned to Melbourne, where in 1945 he married his first wife Jean Coles (b1921 in Melbourne, Victoria). Ivor and Jean settled in Melbourne, where they raised their family and Ivor worked as a Driver before becoming a Radio Announcer - first at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in 1951 and then with Radio KZ. Ivor and Jean separated in the late 1950s - Jean remarried and Ivor moved to Sydney, NSW where he worked as a Radio Announcer and Newscast Editor with Radio 2IW. In the mid 1960s Ivor moved to QLD, where he worked as a Radio Producer and Broadcaster in Brisbane and Toowoomba. It was in Toowoomba that Ivor met his second wife Barbara May Rub (nee Clarke; b1941 in Brisbane, QLD) - Barbara was a Clerk Typist in Toowoomba - and they married in Brisbane in 1978. Ivor and Barbara settled on the Sunshine Coast hinterland, where Barbara died in 1986 and Ivor in 2002.