Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The coal-producing town of Collie in the south of Western Australia was the birthplace of George on the 14th December 1914. His parents were Ethel Annie and Thomas James Whitton George was the second son having an older brother, Henry Pike. Both boys were educated at the Collie State School but life was a challenge for their mother who was the main wage earner and gained little support from her frequently absent husband. Both sons soon sought work in different states, Henry in the Northern Territory and George in several different districts, eventually headed across the border to the South Australian ‘boom town’ of Whyalla. He was immediately employed as a rigger, earning the nick-name of ‘the human fly’ for his fearless arial work.
With the outbreak of WWII an intensive drive in country regions aimed at encouraging fit young, preferably single men to sign up in to serve in the armed forces. Aged 25, George was one of the early enlistees from Whyalla on the 27th May ’40. In September that year, BHP provided the names of 78 of their workers who had left Whyalla ‘to give their services to their King’.
Two years later, in Darwin, George’s older brother Henry enlisted in June ’42 as D457 in the Australian Army Ordnance Corps, eventually rising to the rank of Sergeant, with much of his time spent in the Northern Territory. Henry was discharged on the 1st May ’46.
George was allocated the number SX3624 and initially placed in the 2/8th Corps before training at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills. By May he was allocated to the newly formed 2/48th Battalion where his leadership skills led to him being appointed as Acting Corporal in September. Following pre-embarkation leave, George sailed for the Middle East via Freemantle, on the 7th Convoy, arriving on the 17th December. In January the following year he became a Corporal, successfully attending a rifle and grenade course.
Tellingly, on the 30th July ’41 John Glenn wrote in Tobruk to Tarakan ‘Tobruk…we’d been there just on sixteen weeks now. In dust and sand and heat and fleas and flies… and battle.’ The men had earned the unofficial but proudly claimed title of being Rats of Tobruk. At the start of August, they were back in the Salient, facing hot winds during the day and a full nigh moon with Spandau attacks creating counter Bren attacks and the associated pall of dust and smoke.
Glen added ‘On our first day, Private S.E. Scott and Private W.A.G. Dwyer were killed by machine gun fire and Privates Whitton and Winter were wounded by shell splinters.’ George received multiple bullet wounds to his face and arms and spent almost two months in hospital. He was classified as temporally medically unfit for service.
South Australian newspapers carried the details of George’s injury, with the August issue of the Whyalla News summarising his career under the heading 'HUMAN FLY" WOUNDED
Private W. Whitton, who was employed on the erection of the blast furnace has been
wounded. He was an expert at climbing tall structures such as wireless poles and was known as the human fly. In a letter which Mr. Peter Butler received from him this week he thanked the B.H.P. for copies of its review and expressed appreciation of the work of the Fighting Forces Comforts Fund. He added that the heat was terrific and that he would like to be back in the bar at a Whyalla hotel.’
The following month, George’s parents in Collie received a thoughtful, compassionate letter from one of the un-named nurses from the hospital where George was being treated. She reassured his parents that although he had received a head wound, his condition was not serious and that he was well on the way to recovery. To have made time to find George’s next of Kin and to write, when confronted by the huge and constant demands to treat and care for the injured men is not always fully appreciated.
Inevitably, George’s condition meant that he returned to Australia in April ’42, via Freemantle. Over June he was in a temporary staging Camp on the Adelaide Oval. His injuries contributed to his eventual discharge on the 1st August ’42 with the aim of returning to live at Gay Street in Whyalla
By ’43 Whyalla’s BHP Planning Department started a campaign to erect a Roll of Honor to acknowledge the many young men who had enlisted from the town. George’s name had already been noted.
Post war, for many returned combatants, a return to ‘normal’ life was a little understood challenge. George eventually headed back to Collie in Western Australia for four months surviving on a war pension. He then headed to Geraldton, placing an advertisement to purchase a sail for his 12 foot dingy. Five years later, still with no permanent home address, George advertised to sell two of his fishing nets, one of 80 feet and the other 60 feet. However, he kept his dingy and returned to Geraldton.

In 1950, 35-year-old George, identified as a war pensioner, fronted the Geraldton Police Court charged with having gone to the Geraldton Railway Yards locomotive sheds shortly after dark and taken a tarpaulin valued at £10, the property of the Commissioner of Railways. He took the tarpaulin to his beach camp, using it to cover the dinghy he had built and painted it with tar, with the intention of doing some shark fishing. He shared that he had a job to go to at the Abrolhos Islands when the fishing season began and had thought to make a living until then by shark fishing in the harbor. The Court was told that George had been living on the beach and was in a deplorable condition when arrested, had no money and, it was doubtful as to when he had last had a meal. George readily admitted taking the tarpaulin and that it was "a very silly thing to do" offering to make full restitution when able. He was ordered to repay £10 and meet the costs (11/6), but no mention was made of the return, care or compassion for the highly regarded hero of Tobruk.

Ironically, that decade, back at Whyalla the complete list of men and women who had enlisted from the town was finalised, with the names to be placed on plaques at the Memorial gates which would be constructed at the entrance to Memorial Oval.
George moved to live in Queensland where he was involved in an horrific accident whilst working in Prosperine as a linesman for the Post and Telegraph Department, returning to the skills that earned him the title of the ‘human fly’ from his Whyalla days. However, his injury did not occur in the air, rather, he was part of a team removing a telegraph pole from at O'Connell River, when the post fell on him.' The Calen Ambulance attended, noting his injuries as being severe head 'injuries, a probable fracture to the skull, probable fracture to the right shoulder blade, and injuries to the back. He spent a week in hospital before recovered sufficiently to leave in June ‘74.
Within six months, George died on the 26th December 1974. He now rests in the Normanton Cemetery, Queensland, Section H. where a simple plaque now reflects his service in the 2/48th Battalion. Lest We Forget.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes, SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.