Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Completed by St Ignatius College.

Robert Eustace Emery was born in Kapunda, SA, on the 19th of November 1908. Robert, known to many as Bob, was the eldest son of six children. Bob was educated at Woodville High School1 [LR2] and left around the age of fourteen or fifteen to get a job in his grandfather’s market garden. After a couple of years there he left to work at a building trade, which he stayed at for a few years. At the age of twenty-two, he went to Roseworthy Agricultural college. He completed the three the year course in two years and, in 1932, he left for Bulolo with a Diploma of Agriculture and a Boosey & Hawke euphonium(2).

Eventually, he heard that a man by the name of Carl Jacobsen was starting a big farm down at Lae. Bob got in touch and was offered a job there managing the farm. In 1936 he took up 150 hectares at Lae, planting 4,000 coconuts. By 1941, he started the first dairy farm on the North Coast(2). This was subsequently interrupted by the war.

Bob enlisted on October 3rd, 1939. He was the first to apply in Lae. In 1941, with the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (NGVR), Sgt Bob Emery found himself and two of his friends, Dick Vernon and Peter Monfries, despatched to Madang to “defend the ‘drome’” after answering the call to volunteer for the job. It was reportedly them and an old Lewis gun against the Japanese(3).

In Madang they were bombed by the Japanese After it had stopped, Bob realised that there wasn’t much they could do to stop the Japanese from sailing into the harbour so he brought as much food and supplies back to his garrison as he could. He also found a stack of caddies of trade tobacco in a corner of a mostly destroyed customs shed, which was used to pay the natives who worked for them well(3).

On May 21st 1942 at Heath’s Farm, just before dusk, the Japanese found the outpost they were staying at. Bob’s brother, John, came down the hill and let them know. He also informed them that the Japanese had gotten a man in their unit by the name of Frank Anderson. Bob went up the hill to go help Frank Anderson, saw some Japanese soldiers who shot at him, so he shot them with his rifle. Afterwards he headed down the track and got back to the camp, but no one was there. He grabbed his bag and kept going.

As Bob crawled across Whittaker’s plantation and up towards Jenyns, the Japanese started shelling the bush around there. After hiding until nearly dusk, he got on the road and walked home. Bob arrived at Munum village at about 4 o’clock in the morning. He was familiar with the natives there, and they gave him a cup of tea4.

Around early June the 5th Independent Coy. started moving down towards them. Bob was asked for suggestions for a way of getting a reconnaissance party into Lae and getting them out again with information, as all their men had been caught on their private tracks. He suggested that a recce could be floated down the Markham at night, as that was how he used to get coconuts from Nadzab before the war. Bob was sent to do the recce with his mate Bill Mercutt. Eventually, the Heath’s Raid occurred. In the middle of it, Major Kneen, a commanding officer, was killed, so everyone retired.

They were getting low on food and had been waiting on an air drop for 2 weeks, so Bob was sent to get groceries. He, and a native that came with him, arrived at Aiyura about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and saw a man he was friends with called Jim Brugh seated there. He offered Bob some food he had been making. Jim organised carriers and they got the groceries, made rafts, and went down the Markham4. [LR3] 

The next year, 1943, Bob Emery and Bob Booth organised some vaccinations for the natives who wanted them. They were to go and do a final check to see how many shots were wanted, but Bob Emery needed to give his feet a rest. So, Bob Booth went on his own, and asked to take Bob Emery’s .22 so he could get a bird or two, leaving his own tommy gun behind(4).

He was awoken from his sleep to find a Japanese patrol approaching where he was staying. Bob grabbed the tommy gun and looked out the other end. He shot it a few times and took off. He jumped down into the creek and escaped, without a pair of shoes and a bullet in his elbow5. [LR4] Bob was hospitalised from the bullet that had gone through the middle of the joint.

His unit had been disbanded and he was recommended to join ANGAU. He applied for leave, and when he asked about it a few months later he was told that it was still being processed. Bob decided to go see the commanding officer, which was the colonel. The colonel got him leave for 14 days in Adelaide6. [LR5] 

After he finished his leave, he was sent to Victoria Park junior leader’s school as an instructor. After about a fortnight there, he saw the M.O one morning and told him that he joined the army as A class, and they’d made him B so he’d like some more treatment. Bob was pulled out and sent back to hospital in Dawes road. It is there that he was informed he’d been awarded the military medal 

He put in for the medical board, and eventually he was interviewed. He told them he wanted to be either right in  or right out, not B class, and so he was made A2. Within 3 or 4 days he was on a train heading north in ANGAU. He was eventually discharged on the 8th of January 194610.[LR6] 

After his time with the army, he went on to play in a number of bands. One night, whilst playing cornet, he was accompanied on the piano by a woman named Heather Cameron. They married in 1946. They had three sons and one daughter11.[LR7] 

His death occurred on the 12th of August 2004 at the age of 95. He is currently buried at Kingston Cemetery in South Australia.

Robert Emery frequently displayed the ANZAC spirit during his service, particularly through the traits of mate ship and ingenuity. He displayed mate ship through his bond with the members of his unit. He befriended the locals and did what he could to help everyone around him. This is particularly reflected through Bob going up alone to fight the Japanese in an attempt to save his friend, Frank Anderson. He showed ingenuity in many instances, with his quick thinking to transport the supplies after the aerodrome was bombed and to use trade tobacco to pay the natives for their help. He constantly used his vast knowledge of the area to do what he could to help, suggesting alternative routes after their men had been caught on the supposedly private tracks, and even taking on a reconnaissance mission down the Markham.

1“Robert Eustace EMERY MM.” Vwma.org.au, vwma.org.au/explore/people/534507.

2“Vale September 2005.” Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, 19 Sept. 2005, pngaa.org/vale-september-2005/.

3“When the Japanese Bombed Magang: Bob Emery - Papua New Guinea Association of Australia.” Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, 16 Sept. 2015, pngaa.org/when-the-japanese-bombed-magang-bob-emery/.

4“When the Japanese Bombed Magang: Bob Emery - Papua New Guinea Association of Australia.” Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, 16 Sept. 2015, pngaa.org/when-the-japanese-bombed-magang-bob-emery/

5 “Trove.” Trove.nla.gov.au, trove.nla.gov.au/search?keyword=Robert%20Eustace%20Emery.

6 Robert Eustace Emery Service Number NG2001, National Archives of Australia, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5881753.

10“DVA’s Nominal Rolls.” Nominal-Rolls.dva.gov.au, nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=849873&c=WW2#R.

11“Vale September 2005.” Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, 19 Sept. 2005, pngaa.org/vale-september-2005/.

Bibliography:

Ainsworth, Phil. Keepers of the Gate. Apr. 2016, pngaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/KEEPERS-OF-THE-GATE-Phil-Ainsworth.pdf.

Emery, Robert. Robert Eustace “Bob” Emery as a Prisoner of the Japanese, Second World War, Interviewed by Andrew Pirie. 2 May 1986, www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1228057.

Robert Eustace (Bob) Emery, as a Lieutenant, New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit, Interviewed by Daniel Connell for the Keith Murdoch Sound Archive of Australia in the War of 1939-45. 13 Mar. 1990, d2uipk7udysvkd.cloudfront.net/collection/S00727/document/1043897.PDF.

Robert Eustace Emery Service Number NG2001, National Archives of Australia, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5881753 .

“Robert Eustace EMERY MM.” Vwma.org.au, vwma.org.au/explore/people/534507.

“NGVR.” PNGVR, pngvr.weebly.com/ngvr.html.

“Vale September 2005.” Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, 19 Sept. 2005, pngaa.org/vale-september-2005/.

“When the Japanese Bombed Magang: Bob Emery - Papua New Guinea Association of Australia.” Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, 16 Sept. 2015, pngaa.org/when-the-japanese-bombed-magang-bob-emery/.

“Robert Eustace EMERY MM.” Vwma.org.au, vwma.org.au/explore/people/534507. Accessed 13 May 2024.

Robert Eustace Emery Www.findagrave.com, 4 Feb. 2018,

www.findagrave.com/memorial/187085522/robert-eustace-emery.

“DVA’s Nominal Rolls.” Nominal-Rolls.dva.gov.au, nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=849873&c=WW2#R.

“Trove.” Trove.nla.gov.au, trove.nla.gov.au/search?keyword=Robert%20Eustace%20Emery.

 [LR2]https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/534507
 [LR3]https://d2uipk7udysvkd.cloudfront.net/collection/S00727/document/1043897.PDF
 [LR4]https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49552198
 [LR5]https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5881753
 [LR6]https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=849873&c=WW2#R
 [LR7]https://www.pngaa.net/Vale/vale_sept05.htm