Colin Malcolm MCKINNON

Colin Malcolm MCKINNON Update Details

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MCKINNON, Colin Malcolm

Service Number:	SX8919
Enlisted:	15 July 1940, Wayville, SA
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	23rd Field Park Company
Born:	Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, 24 June 1920
Home Town:	Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Electrician's Assistant
Died:	Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality - New South Wales, Australia, 5 October 2015, aged 95 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Broken Hill Cemetery, New South Wales
Memorials:

World War 2 Service

15 Jul 1940:	Involvement Sapper, SX8919
15 Jul 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, SX8919
15 Jul 1940:	Enlisted Wayville, SA
5 Feb 1941:	Embarked Australian Army (Post WW2), Sapper, SX8919, 23rd Field Park Company, ex Port Melbourne per MX3 for Middle East
10 Feb 1944:	Embarked Australian Army (Post WW2), Sapper, SX8919, 23rd Field Park Company, ex Lae per Katoomba for Townsville
24 Apr 1944:	Embarked Australian Army (Post WW2), Sapper, SX8919, 23rd Field Park Company, ex Townsville per katoomba for Finschafen
10 Jun 1944:	Embarked Australian Army (Post WW2), Sapper, SX8919, 23rd Field Park Company, ex Lae per Duntroon for Townsville
7 Oct 1945:	Embarked Australian Army (Post WW2), Sapper, SX8919, 23rd Field Park Company, ex Cairns per Duntroon for Buna
8 Feb 1946:	Discharged
8 Feb 1946:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, SX8919

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Colin was the sixth of nine children of Donald Archibald McKinnon (born 1881 in Clare, South Australia) and Ada Florence Shore (born 1882 in Stockport, South Australia). Donald and Ada married in 1903 in Broken Hill - an outback mining town in NSW near the South Australian border. They raised their family in Broken Hill, where Donald was an Engine Driver, and were regularly in South Australia - where their children enlisted in WWII.

Colin was working as an Electrician's Assistant at Broken Hill when he enlisted in the Army in July 1940. He served as a Sapper (Service No:SX8919) with 2/23 Corps Field Park Engineers in the Middle East (5/2/1941 - 25/3/1942) and New Guinea (19/10/1943 - 5/2/1944 and 24/3/1944 - 9/6/1944). He was Discharged in February 1946. Sister Lorraine Jean (Corporal, Service No:96837) and Brothers Eric Donald (Private, Service No:SX15762) and Laurance (Leading Aircraftman, Service No:141808) served in WWII, as did Brothers-in-Law Richard Thomas Toohey (Private, Service No:14441) and George Brian McLachlan (Leading Aircraftman, Service No:121747).

When he initially returned from Active Service, Colin worked as a Linesman's Assistant in Broken Hill before finding work as a Clerk in the early 1950s. In 1957 he married Frances Lorraine Johnson in Broken Hill, and they both worked as Clerks until Retirement. Colin died in 2015.

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