Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Douglas Raymond Kemp
Douglas Kemp was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs E.H. Kemp of Cowandilla. He was a typically active and involved boy in sport, winning races as a 10-year-old at the Commercial Traveller’s Kensington picnic and later at the RSL annual picnic held at Long Gully.
After he enlisted in 1940, accurate details of where troops were sent and any detail of their engagements were protected by censors. However, while still Private SX7084, Douglas, a member of the newly formed 2/48th Battalion, wrote to his parents from 'somewhere in Libya' wanting to praise the efforts of ‘Our Tommy Friends’. His parents shared this letter in the Chronicle in June of 1941; “He, too, emphatically gives the lie to the German propaganda that Britain will sacrifice to the last Australian or the last New Zealanders, by his glowing references to the Tommies who are with his battalion; the sterling work they are doing and how well the two are getting on together. In fact, there appears to be a mutual agreement to visit each other's countries after the war is won. He gives the Tommies the highest praise for both their work and comradeship, and apparently, from the following story, the Tommies are feeling the same about the Aussies — 'A few Tommies captured a couple of Germans. One of the Germans said to the Tommies, 'You can't possibly win this war, as we've got the Lord with us, and one of the Tommies promptly replied, 'That's nothing; we've got the Aussies with us, so that scrubs you off.' May I also add that my son in nearly every letter he writes praises the work of the Comforts Fund and also that of the 48th Battalion Comforts Fund, and says how much it means to the men on active service.”
In March, 1944, by then promoted to Lieutenant, Douglas Kemp and Patricia O’Toole announced their engagement. Then in December of the same year, Douglas chose his brother as his best man when he married Patricia in St Paul’s Church, Pulteney Street, Adelaide. Within a year, hostilities had ceased and he was discharged in August, 1945.