Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

As noted on his service records, held by National Archives Australia, when he enlisted on 27 Apr 1943 he did so using his birth name of Henry Godfrey Robinson. On page 21 of his service record he provided a Statutory Declaration noting that, while he had enlisted under the above name, he was going by the name Henry Godfrey O'Brien and wished that name to be used on his records. Later in life he preferred the name Harry O'Brien.

When he enlisted in 1943 for service with the Air Force in WW2 he was living at James St, Canterbury, NSW, with his mother and working as a salesman with David Jones. Following the submission of the statutory declaration regarding his change of name noted above, the RAAF made enquiries of Indian authorities to verify the bonifides of his birth and name given he had indicated his father had served with the British military there.

Page 22 of his service record contains a record extracted from the birth registrations required to be held for military serviceman in India notng that he, Henry Godfrey Robinson, was born on 18 Apr 1925 at Madras, the son of Sergeant William Henry Robinson and Marianne Robinson (nee Roche). He married Yvonne Elmer Dart at Newcastle, NSW, in 1946 and they had 1 child. 

I came into contact with Harry when I moved to Brisbane in the 1980s to attend university, and after living with relatives was on the search for a rental. Harry lived atop a building he had converted into serviced flats in Clayfield, Brisbane. He was also employed for a long time as a sales executive with Qld Newspapers printing division involved with the printing of publications related to the racing industry. Prior to that he had himself been involved in training race horses and later in life developed an interest in following the greyhounds.

Partaking in the odd beer he would reminisce about his past exploits indicating he first came into contact with racehorses as a child in India where his father at some point had been involved as a trainer. After moving to Australia he moved around a bit, aside from living in Sydney, he had spent time in Melbourne working for Nestle Chocolates, and later on the central coast of NSW where I believe he became involved with training race horses. 

Knowing that I had spent time in Cairns, Harry would fondly reminisce of his time stationed there during his WW2 service assigned to work with the Catalina Flying Boat Squadron operating from there. On one of my holiday trips back to Cairns he asked if I could take a photo of the memorial to the Catalina Flying Boat squadron located on the esplanade. 

(source- National Archives Australia- WW2 service record; personal recollections).