Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Completed by Seaton High School

Charles James Neville Wilson (referred to as Neville) was born on the 8th of December 1918, in Ayr Queensland. He was the second born of Euphemia Juinita and George Gordon Cameron Wilson’s six children. He grew up on the family sugar cane farm in the Ana Branch District of the Ayr Shire.

 Life on the farm was tough as there was little to no money due to aspects such as the falling prices of the sugar market, the great depression, cyclones, floods, and droughts. 

Neville was of poor health in the earlier years of his life as he developed convultions in 1922 and was later placed in hospital with diphtheria. He suffered from frequent earaches and croup attacks for multiple years. He also had re-occurring malaria until about the age of 22 but did not have any serious illnesses after around 15 years old.

Neville started school in the middle of 1923 at Ana Branch State School, a one teacher school with between 20 and 25 students. As someone who was left-handed, he had to learn to write with his right hand otherwise risk being hit the back of his hand with a ruler. Neville and his elder brothers rode to school by horse as it was about 2 miles away from their house.  Although Neville once fell off the horse and ended up with a broken arm, resulting in him having to skip school to recover. By the time he was able to return to school the horse had passed away, so he had to walk the 2 miles to school. Money was scarce which was why they were unable to replace the horse, this also meant that he along with his siblings had to walk to school barefoot.

Neville and his brother continued their education at Ana Branch State School until around 1925 when the school was temporarily closed as it was hard to find teachers. Neville and his older brother went to the Jarvisfield School, a 2-teacher school with around 100 students.

Neville and his siblings all attended boarding school in Charters Towers as the nearest high school, Ayr High School was too far away (11 miles) from their home as they had no means of transport, and the school did not have any boarding facilities. There were six schools in total in Charters Towers, 3 girl’s schools and 3 boy’s schools. Neville attended the All Souls School, which was the school for the church of England. Neville finished his schooling in 1934 and started working in 1935 as a fitter and turner apprentice at the local Kalamia sugar mill in Ayr.

Charles James Neville Wilson joined the Militia in 1938 while continuing his apprenticeship at Kalamia Mill. He left the Militia in 1940 with the intent of joining up but ended up working as a Turner at the BHP Australian and Steel Works at Port Kembla. He later joined the Royal Australian Navy on the 23rd of January 1941 as an engine room artificer. He was trained at Flinders Naval Depot in Victoria before being transferred to the Fremantle Depot where he did maintenance on speed boats. After nine months he was able to talk his way onto the HMAS Alfie Cam. “These were converted North Sea Trawlers and were very good sea boats infested with more cockroaches than you would think possible.” (Charles James Neville Wilson, A Good Life, 1989). Working as an engineer Neville was seasick for about the first three months on the HMAS Alfie Cam as he was not used to being on boats.

After working on the HMAS Alfie Cam for around nine months Neville was transferred to the HMAS Pirie a corvette this time but also a mine sweeper. He first started on the HMAS Pirie as it was heading towards Cairns, but it later was in the waters around Papa New Guinea where the corvette was hit by a missile. This happened on 11 April 1943, four months after Neville had been transferred onto the HMAS Pirie. The mine sweeper was near Oro Bay, Papa New Guinea escorting the SS Hanyang when they were attacked by multiple Japanese dive bombers. The HMAS Pirie was narrowly missed six times and was directly hit once. The direct hit penetrated the bullet proof canopy that was over the bridge, rebounded off the protective apron of the Helmsman, striking and

instantly killing the Gunnery officer. The missile than hit the upper deck, before exploding and killing six people and wounding four. The Japanese bomber planes left quickly after hitting the Pirie stopping the attack on corvette but leaving severely damaged. The forward deck and superstructure were the parts that had the most damage forcing the HMAS Pirie to return to Australia for repairs. The HMAS Pirie resumed operating in May 1943 after repairs on the corvette were completed. During the repairs some of the crew went on strike, in protest of the commanding officer, who had withheld the crews pay, and made them stay on the corvette during repairs while he stayed in a hotel. Going on this strike shows the ANZAC Spirit, as Neville and the crew could have faced punishment and possible jail time striking, but stood up for what is right, reflecting mateship courage and bravery.

The Pirie resumed its original route of the Cairns/ New Guinea convoy run before being transferred to the Thursday Island/ Darwin convoy run and later mine sweeping duties around Thursday Island and the Great Barrier Reef.After leaving the HMAS Pirie Neville was transferred to the Boom Defence Depot in Darwin for twelve months. He spent about three months on one of the Boom Gate ships before going ashore to work in the Boom Workshop. In November 1945 Neville left Darwin a Corvette in a flotilla that was minesweeping along Wilsons Promontory. After that he was transferred to the HMAS Moreton, the Brisbane depot for discharge in March 1946.

After being discharged from the Royal Australian Navy Charles James Neville Wilson set up a business repairing and servicing tractors in Quirindi with another ex-navy man. This was a good paying job at the equivalent of 50 cents per hour but due a bad drought farmers couldn’t use their tractors, so they didn’t need to be serviced, the farmers also didn’t have enough money to get their tractor serviced. This caused the pair to close the business in early 1947, parting ways. Neville joined Associated Minerals in, Southport as a turner. He was only there for a few weeks before securing a job as a mechanical engineer with the Raub Australian Gold Mine in Raub Pahang, Malaya. When in Quirindi Neville got engaged to Alma Mary Saunders, who was a local girl from that area. They got married on the 19 July 1947. Alma stayed in Quirindi for six months after Neville had moved to Malaya before joining him in mid-April 1948. While in Malaya Alma became pregnant and had their first son, Paul, who was born at Bungsar Hospital in Kuala Lumpur on 16 April 1949. The family returned to Australia in September 1949 as Neville got a job in Leigh Creek, South Australia, working as a Sub Foreman with the Electricity Trust of South Australia at the Leigh Creek Coalfield. On 6 January 1952, Alma, and Neville’s second son, David, was born at the AIM Hospital, and their daughter, Leonie, was born on 8 July 1954 at the Leigh Creek Hospital. In November 1955, Neville was appointed Engineer in charge of the construction of the Mount Gambier Steam Power Station. After the construction of the steam station Neville became Power Station Superintendent in charge of the operation and maintenance of both Mount Gambier Power Stations. He continued in this position until 1976 when operations at the steam station ceased. As he had to find a new job Neville was appointed the new regional manager as the current one was being transferred to Adelaide. He continued working as Regional Manager until the end of 1979 when he retired.

 Neville and Alma stayed in Mount Gambier for the rest of their lives, Neville was very prominent in the community, volunteering for places such as schools, the Mount Gambier RSL and Lifeline. He received an OAM Medal for services to the Mount Gambier Community for his volunteer work in 1997. He passed away a year later on the 11th of June 1998. Leaving behind his wife, Alma, three children, Paul, David and Leonie, along with multiple grandchildren.

Reference List

National Archives of Australia (2024) Charles James Neville Wilson, National Archives of Australia, accessed 4 August 2024 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=4513683&isAv=N

Naval Historical Society of Australia (2024) Commercial trawlers in Two Wars, Naval Historical Society of Australia, accessed 4 August 2024. https://navyhistory.au/commercial-trawlers-in-two-wars/2/  

Frame, Tom; Baker, Kevin (2000). Mutiny! Naval Insurrections in Australia and New Zealand. St. Leonards, NSW, accessed 6 August 2024

Charles James Neville Wilson (1989) A Good Life, accessed 5 September 2024.

Royal Australian Navy (2024) HMAS Pirie (I), Royal Australian Navy, accessed 6 September 2024. https://seapower.navy.gov.au/hmas-pirie-i%20

Virtual War Memorial Australia (2024) Charles James Neville Wilson, Virtual War Memorial Australia, accessed 4 August 2024. https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/979873