Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Albert was born at Tumby Bay on 10 Sep 1909 to William Whiting and Alice Whiting (nee Foster). He was the youngest of 10 children in the family, 6 boys and 4 girls. His father was a farmer, arriving in Australia from UK in 1883 and settling on the York Peninsula, initially at Percyton and then Moorowie, before moving to Butler in 1905 and purchasing 4000 acres (approx 1600 Ha), Hd of Butler Sect 15E. In 1917 they sold the farm at Butler to an older son and returned to Kadina so that Albert could get a better education.

Alby commenced school at Butler in 1916, then moved to Kadina and then Salt Lake before finally finishing his schooling at Aldgate in 1925. He returned to Eyre Peninsular at age 17 and purchased a block at Butler (Hd of Roberts) of approx. 2000 acres (800 Ha) which he sold in 1937. He also had land in Hd of Dixon which he sold on enlistment.

He enlisted in the Army at Blyth (near Snowtown) before being sent to Hampstaed for processing. At this time he gave his occupation as farm labourer and his home town as Tumby Bay.

On 14 Feb 1942 he reported to 2nd Recruit Training Group and undertook his initial training at Hampstead and further training at Warradale before being posted to 6 Cavalry Defensive Platoon on 25 Mar 1942. He undertook a further month of training and was then granted Leave Without Pay until 9 Jun 1942.

On 10 Jun 1942 he entrained from Adelaide for movement to Victoria and was transferred to Headquarters 6th Armoured Brigade located at Geelong as a driver. Unfortunately he fell foul of the discipline required and on 4 Oct 1942 he was charged with Absent Without Leave and sentenced to the loss of 7 days pay and 14 days detention at Bandiana. Possibly as a result of this transgression he was then posted to 2nd Armoured Brigade, AASC Company, in Queensland on 3 Dec 1942.

On 15 Nov 1943 he was transferred to 164th Australian General Transport (AGT) Company (Coy) in Queensland. A month later his unit relocated from Queensland to 11 Lines of Communication Area (Alice Springs). Alby remained with this unit until 2 May 1944 when he was transferred to 135 AGT Coy, also located in Alice Springs, where he remained for almost another year. On 10 Mar 1945 he was again transferred, this time to 118 AGT Coy also at Alice Springs.

There were several AGT Coys of the Army located in the Northern Territory area during WW2.  Little has been written of the AGT Coys; this is surprising given the vital importance of transport services and their support to Military operations. The immensity of the movement task facing the Defence of Australia with the lack of North - South and East - West road links, a rail system that was hampered by the differing gauges and the absence of a rail link from the eastern and southern states to Darwin cannot be understated.

The AGTs provided the link to overcome these huge transport problems. Most of these units were Army Reserve/Militia units; the "S" prefix to Alby's number denotes that he was a reservist. 

A number of the AGT Coys were charged with moving freight from the rail head at Alice Springs to the rail head at Larrimah, for on movement to Darwin. By to-days standards the vehicles were very basic, but then so were the roads (or tracks) that they operated over! In fact the movement from Alice Springs to the northern railhead was described as "up the track" and at convoy speed, which was 20M.P.H (32KPH), took 11 days.

On 6 Oct 1945 Alby marched into the 4th Military District and took his discharge 4 days later.

After discharge he worked as a farm hand in the Blyth area. On 19 Mar 1949 he married Vilma Hentschke at Blyth. They had 3 children, a boy and 2 girls.

Alby retired at 74 years and the couple moved to Pine Cottage, Watchman (near Blyth SA) where he continued to enjoy gardening. The couple remained here until Alby broke his hip and was moved into Millcourt Hostel. He died on 13 Mar 2004 and was buried in Memorial Park, Enfield. Vilma died on 3 Apr 2010 and is buried beside her husband.

Medals and Decorations

Defence Medal                                                                                                                     

War Medal 1939-45                                                                                                               

Australian Service Medal 1939-45