Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

One of four brrothers (Tom, Jim and Paul) who served in WWII, Sergeant Vincent Stephen Anthony Purtell (Service No:11681) enlisted in the RAAF on 5 August 1940 at No 1 Recruiting Centre Melbourne as an Aircraftman I - mustered as Trainee Clerk General, re mustered as Clerk General. Promoted to Sergeant on 1 April 1942, he served in the Northern Territory (55 Operational Base Unit (OBU) Birdum, 24 Base Wing at Adelaide River and 54 Mile). In 1944 Sergeant Purtell attended General Reconnaissance School (GRS) Bairnsdale, and in October 1945 was posted to HQ Northern Command (NorCom) in Madang, New Guinea. Sergeant Purtlell was attached to 1 Personnel Depot at Discharge on 7 february 1946.

Vin was born in Albany, Western Australia in 1910, fifth of nine children of John Joseph Purtell (b1872 in Ballarat, Victoria) and Emily Ethel Tanner (b1878 in Melbourne, Victoria). John (a Prospector) and Emily married in 1899 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, and lived in Norseman and Albany, where they raised their family and John was a Miner, Labourer and Smelter Hand. John served in the AIF in WWI (2nd Corporal; Service No:4244). Following his Discharge, John was prospecting at Yalgoo in Western Australia with two other Returned Soldiers when they uncovered the largest (to that date) gold nugget discovered in Australia (over 100 lbs). In the early 1920s John and Emily moved to Melbourne, Victoria with their family - John worked on the railways before returning to gold prospecting - in the 1930s in Bendigo, Ballarat and Echuca and in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. John returned to Melbourne in the late 1930s, where he died in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. Emily, a talented musician and artist, was engaged with the Labor Movement in Coburg and the Trades Hall Council.

Vin joined the Civil Service on leaving school, and was working as a Clerk with the Commonwealth Department of the Interior in 1940 when he enlisted in the RAAF. Vin, with younger brother Paul, was a member of a quartet called the Rhythm Kings in the 1930s. In 1943 in Melbourne, Vin married Iris  Maude Collier (b1915 in Melbourne, Victoria) - Iris was a Stenographer in Melbourne. Following his Discharge from the RAAF,  Vin and Iris settled in Melbourne, where Vin resumed employment as a Civil Servant and Iris was a Clerk. The couple separated in the early 1950s, and Vin remained in Melbourne, where he was a Civil Servant until retirement. Vin died in 1977