Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Gother was born in Sydney NSW on 10 February 1893 and displayed an early affinity with engineering. He won a three year scholarship to the Sydney Technical College and later won the four year Peter Nicol Russell scholarship. Before completing this course WWI commenced and Gother enlisted on 20 May 1915 as a Trooper in the 12th Light Horse. Sent to Egypt, Gother received a commission in the 4th Batallion and took part in the Gallipoli evacuation. When the 5th Division was formed he transferred to the 56th Battalion moving to France from Egypt in June 1916. It was here that he saw action in the battle of Fromelles and was at the Somme until March 1917 where he was wounded in the leg. Returning after convalescence in England he fought at Polygon Wood, Messines and Peronne where he was wounded in the neck. He was awarded the Military Cross for his action which went with his two wound stripes and a special mention in a General Sir Douglas Haig despatch. General William Birdwood would write to Gother saying:

On September 1st last, with great gallantry and deamination you led your company through heavy artillery fire and machine gun fire almost to the ramparts of the town (Peronne), where you established a defensive position. You then, regardless of the great danger involved, mad a daring reconnaissance to locate the flanks of the two other battalions and successfully linked up with them. In the attack on September 2nd you again commanded your company and, although wounded at an early stage, returned to duty in the evening.

After he demobilised in 1919 he left for Japan to join his mother and sister in Yokohama where he worked in an engineering business for three to four years before being transferred to Shanghai China. In 1925 he joined the Shanghai Municipal Council was an electrical engineer and joined the Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC). Gother took over command of the SVC in 1940 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese confined residents to Shanghai though Gother and his wife, Joan, were included in an exchange of prisoners with Japanese nationals returning for various parts of the British Empire. In August 1942 they left China for Portugal, where the exchange took place, and then returned to Australia. On 8 March 1943, at the age of 50, Gother joined the RAAF and was posted to ATIS where his Japanese language skills and knowledge were put to great use. During his time at ATIS, Gother served in New Guinea with the Advanced Echelon supporting the 1 AUST Corps where he was awarded his Mention in Despatches. When the war ended Gother was a SQNLDR based in Morotai where he received orders to proceed to Shanghai to assist the British Consulate in the rehabilitation of British nationals who were interned by the Japanese. To get to Shanghai he was taken aboard an Australian destroyer, then transferred at sea to an aircraft carrier and then flown to Shanghai. After approximately six weeks in Shanghai he returned to Australia to join a firm of consulting engineers in Brisbane.