Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

FLTLT Arthur Rex EDDY, A429870, 24 Jun 1914–4 Sep 1998

 
After a brief period in the Australian Army 9 April - 30 September 1942—  my Father enlisted in the RAAF on 1 Oct 1942 during the aftermath of the initial Japanese bombings of Darwin. My mother, brother and I had already been evacuated from Darwin to south-western Australia by sea in late December 1941. South Australia, the birth- and home-State of both of
my parents, then became my immediate family's home, in Glenelg, from 1942–47.

My father's responsibility to wind down A E Jolly & Co.'s business (bought-out many years post-War by Woolworths) and stock was completed (or truncated by conscription into the Army) on 9 April 1942. However, his service in the Army lasted only until it was terminated on 30 Sep 1942 and thereafter (from 1 October 1942) he served in the RAAF. 

My father was discharged from the RAAF on 13 Dec 1945—although he was not returned to Australia after service before late 1946—before we returned to Darwin in 1947. I deduce that his awards, for service over France and Germany in Lancaster(s), were within RAF Bomber Command, but I have never known with which squadrons. He rarely alluded to and never discussed his wartime experience in my hearing, although I did gather that his pre-war civilian technical interest in radio had some bearing on his having become a WAG. He did not live to appreciate the recent and much-belated recognition of Bomber Command's contribution to the downfall of the Third Reich. That lack of recognition, and/or his experiences of war, may have been catalysts for his silence.