Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Augustus and Agnes Mary Lees, of Gordonvale.

ROLL OF HONOUR
LIEUTENANT H. E. LEES.
A fine average type of Australian was lost to the nation when, on Sunday, November 18, 1945, at Cairns, Hugh Emmett Lees passed into the silences. Reaching 34 years of age in March, Hugh Lees had spent the last six of these on active service, the greater part of which was carried out  over-seas. Born in Mareeba, he attended first the Convent School there, and then with his parents came to Cairns to reside, later joining the  Railway Department. As a youth he was keenly interested in rifle shooting, and on several occasions was the holder of the Championship Cup  presented by the Mayor of Cairns (Ald. W. A. Collins).
Soldiering held its appeal for him, and he early joined the Militia movement in Cairns. At the time of his enlistment in the. A.I.F. in October, 1939,  Hughie held the position of roster clerk at the Mareeba railway depot. Andy Couper had been the first Mareeba lad to join up, and included in the  next draft soon afterwards were Owen Ryan and Hugh Lees, the former QX 3744 and the latter QX3745. They became members of the 2/12  Battalion, 18th Brigade (original Sixth Division) and as such embarked on the Queen Mary in May, 1940. Portion of the Sixth had already reached  the Middle East, but owing to circumstances the convoy in which the 18th Brigade was travelling was diverted to the British Isles via Capetown,  Sierra Leone and Scotland.
There followed then several months in England during the first blitz. Embarking again, the 18th Brigade reached Tobruk, and went through that  grim siege and spent months on the Tobruk perimeter-the long months of "Stuka" parades, constant vigilance, night patrols, German tank attacks, desert heat and dust and hardship. After the job had been done the Australians were relieved and the 18th Brigade moved up close to the Turkish border. Then, when things looked blackest and grimmest in Australia, with the storm clouds rushing down the northern skyline, the 18th Brigade came home and went on to New Guinea to fight the vital Milne Bay battle, in which the Japanese were decisively defeated—the Milne Bay battle  wherein the 2/9, 2/10 and 2/12 added a glorious page to Australia's history.
In late 1943, Hugh Lees transferred to the newly-formed First New Guinea Infantry-Battalion, and served as a lieutenant with that force—native troops under white officers—until he was granted, home leave, in May, 1945. But the lengthened service, the tension and hardships were  beginning to take toll. Becoming suddenly, ill, he underwent a serious operation at the 116, A.G.H. (Jungara), and after some weeks spent there aan later at Greenslopes, Hughie was discharged from the Army.
Preparatory to again entering railway work, holiday leave was being taken when sudden illness compelled him to go into the Cairns District Hospital, where death took place soon after admission.
As a citizen Hugh Lees was referred to in kindly terms, his genial nature earning him many friends. Seldom given to speaking of his war service, he was known to be possessed of the quiet, cool courage and calm judgment characteristics required of a good soldier—and that's what his mates  say he was.
Lieutenant Hugh Lees was laid to rest in the Cairns cemetery in the brilliant sunshine of a November afternoon. He was laid to rest as he would  have wished—honoured by the Empire's flag and in the presence of those who served the Empire. Comrades from the old 2/12 were there—men  who had soldiered on knowing what war really meant, and if one's thought more than any other came to mind as the unusually large gathering  listened and the solemn notes of the "Last Post" rang out over the clear still air, it was that occasioned by the lines ;

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.