Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Cecil, known to everyone as Tim, was born in Bendigo in 1917 to John and Caroline Tyler and was the youngest of three children.

Sadly both of Tim's parents died in 1926 when Tim was just 8 years old.  Tim and his older brother Arthur were cared for and raised by one of their aunts, for a short period in Bendigo but subsequently in Melbourne.

In 1930, aged just 13, Tim obtained his Merit Certificate, after which he attended the Prahran Technical School but left there shortly before the Junior Technical Certificate examination took place.

In the early to mid 1930's, aged about 15, Tim worked in a number of jobs including seven and a half months with the United Woollen Mills in South Melbourne as a textile worker, three years at the Esplanade Hotel, St Kilda, and Phairs Hotel in Melbourne, four months at the Victoria Coffee Palace in Melbourne, and three months at the Carlton Hotel in Sydney.

Tim's experience in the hospitality industry provided him the impetus to enlist in the permanent RAAF in June 1938, initially for a period of 6 years, as a Mess Steward.  His first posting was at Laverton where he was promoted from Aircraftman 1 to Leading Aircraftman and then Corporal during his two year period there.

In August 1940 Tim was posted to the No. 1 Bombing & Air Gunnery School in Evans Head, NSW, where he remained for about three years before being posted to Townsville where he embarked for Papua New Guinea and joined the No. 3 Medical Receiving Station, initially in Port Moresby and then Kiriwina.

During Tim's posting in Evans Head he met his wife-to-be, Alice Curran, and they subsequently married on 26 September 1942 in Clifton Hill, an inner suburb of Melbourne.

Whilst serving at Kiriwina in Papua New Guinea Tim was transferred to the No. 12 Repair & Servicing Unit which was subsequently relocated in May 1944 to Aitape on the North-West Coast of Papua New Guinea not far from the border with Papua.

Not long after Tim's arrival in Aitape his initial 6 year term for which he signed up expired, so on 6 June 1944 Tim was re-engaged for a further 6 year term with the RAAF.

In September 1944 was posted back to Australia, disembarking in Townsville on the 6th from where he proceeded to Melbourne where his wife Alice was living in Clifton Hill.

On the 25th June 1945 Tim was posted to the Northern Territory, arriving at 54 Mile, which was the RAAF Airport near the locality now known as Coomalie Creek, before proceeding to Darwin.  Whilst in Darwin the first of his four daughters was born in Melbourne.  Tim was discharged from the RAAF in Darwin on 26th July 1946.

Following Tim's discharge from the RAAF he returned to Melbourne where he found employment with the Tramways Board, starting off as a Conductor, then a Tram Driver, and finally a Revenue Clerk, before retiring in 1982.  He was also a keen and active member of the Freemasons.

Tim had three more daughters, all born in Melbourne, and was a loving and caring father and grandfather.  Sadly his wife Alice died in 1972 at the relatively young age of 54, by which time his daughters were all over the age of 18.

Tim died in the Repatriation Hospital in Heidelberg, Melbourne on 10 January 1991 and was survived by his second wife whom he had married late in life (1986).  He was cremated at the Springvale Crematorium and had his ashes scattered in the cemetery.