Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Talbot Wright, aged 32, a motor mechanic and former chauffeur, was arrested on 11 September 1920 by Constable Cecil Elliott after a sensational car chase through city streets. Wright had stolen a brand-new luxury car, a Studebaker limousine belonging to Albert Cosman Jones, managing director of a company called Australian Motor Services Limited. Jones told the press that he had parked the car in the street outside his flat in Bayswater Road, Rushcutters Bay. He was in conversation with a friend inside the flat when he heard the car being started. Rushing from the apartment, he found Constable Elliott on point duty nearby. Together they commandeered a passing car and gave chase to the limousine, Constable Elliott on the footboard firing his revolver at intervals. Eventually, just outside the Captain Cook Hotel in Paddington, the pursuing car drew abreast of the stolen car and Elliott jumped across to the footboard of the limousine, threatening to shoot the driver if he did not stop.1 Wright’s photograph shows him wearing a Returned from Active Service badge. When he came before the court on Monday 13 September, his solicitor pleaded in his client’s defence that Wright was a returned soldier who had enlisted in 1915 and been wounded in action and ‘badly buried as a result of a shell burst’, and that he was ‘a complete nervous wreck when he arrived home’. The solicitor had a letter from a medical specialist stating that Wright had a ‘morbid mental bearing’.2 The solicitor did not mention that Wright had enlisted under the assumed name Jack Russell, Russell being his mother’s maiden name. As Jack Russell he had embarked for the front on 30 September 1915 with the 4th Reinforcements of the 17th Battalion on HMAT Argyllshire. His service dossier shows that he saw active service in Egypt and on the Western Front, that he spent quite a bit of time in military detention for various offences, and that he was hospitalised on a number of occasions for mostly unspecified ailments, but it has nothing specific to say about his being wounded in action. In any event, when Wright appeared before the committal court in August neither the magistrate nor the police prosecutor was sympathetic to the solicitor’s shell-shock plea, the prosecutor asking: ‘If everyone came before the court with the excuse of shell-shock where would we be?’3 Constable Elliott’s actions, on the other hand, were much acclaimed. He was himself a returned soldier, only 22 years old and a policeman for just seven months. As one journalist put it: ‘Before Elliott joined the force he was engaged in the most exciting of all chases – for Germans in France’.4 1.The National Advocate (Bathurst), 13 September 1920, p1. 2.Evening News, 13 September 1920, p6. 3.Ibid. 4.The National Advocate, op cit.

Guide_to_Remembrance_Day.pdf

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1060032&c=WW2#R

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=472712&c=WW2#R

https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=263551

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8071539

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1246791&c=VIETNAM

Ohlstrom_MyMaps_-_Teacher_Resource.pdf

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=2018119

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1270858&c=VIETNAM

https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=206054

By all their country's wishes blest ! When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, She there shall dress a holier sod, Than e'er before man's feet have trod. By angel hands their knell is runs ; By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray' To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To weep o'er hero lying there.

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=620188&c=WW2#R

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4861982

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1920549

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8096962

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4705102

http://www.yosselbirstein.org/pdf/eng/other/Forgotten_Soldiers.pdf

http://www.artillerywa.org.au/raahs/history.htm

https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141344230>.

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1944064

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8206671

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1064611&c=WW2#R

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8016605

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8015762

https://www.awm.gov.au/sites/default/files/awm338_8.pdf

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 12 August 1917, pronounced fate as 'Killed in Action, 20 July 1916'. Note on Red Cross File No 920705: 'No trace Germany. Cert. by Capt. Mills, 10.10.19.'

SKM_C36821011814050.pdf

SKM_C36821011814370.pdf

https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/anson/LT294.html

http://www.adf-serials.com.au/2a4c.htm

History_153_Sqn__Oct_44-Sept_45__1_.pdf

220913_Dernancourt_SA_Memorial_Opening.pdf

220913_Dernancourt_SA_Memorial_Opening.docx

Lawrence_Lampard_and_his_brother_Frank_Lampard_OAM.pdf

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8085863

Albert_Budd_CARTER_1877-1918_Ver_P2_FINAL_red_nP2.pdf

Cert_of_Service_-_Davies_T_W.pdf

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8377213

Whilst on Malta We (Oxbury and Shipard) served as aircrew with 89 squadron's small detachment of Beaufighter Mk I's. This aircraft was a perfect flying platform for its fearsome armament which included four 20mm cannon and eight wing-mounted .303 machine guns. The punch from this monster could make short work of any enemy unfortunate enough to come within range of its devastating firepower. The Beaufighter's cannon were described by one pilot as being 'like hell's own hammers crashing upon some huge aerial anvil'. Suffice to say their cannon deafened our own crews - as well as silencing the enemy. On several occasions watching through the choking cordite fumes which quickly filled the fuselage - young Oxby would be horrified (but also secretly pleased) to see yet another enemy aircraft disintegrate in front of them. One time an enemy Junkers 88 just ahead exploded in a fireball - engulfing their own aircraft too. Now ablaze themselves Shipard saved the day - and their lives with some quick thinking. He put the Beau into a steep dive which quickly extinguished the 'flaming bonfire'. Merv wasn't too worried (or so he said at the time) because - 'it was just cheap 'n nasty German petrol'. At about this time Doug received his first DFM by selflessly giving up his oxygen supply to his pilot at 22000ft - knowing there was very little available left to him personally. Typically, Douggie made light of the episode and modestly denied his heroism. The truth was he had shown considerable courage on many occasions in life-threatening circumstances. There were often times he freely admitted to having been scared witless. One night Ship's airspeed indicator became u/s - the result of ice building-up in the wing pitot tube. Sensing the aircraft was flying too slowly and nearing a stall Ship pushed the stick forward to lower the nose and gain airspeed - but still, the knots indicated on the IAS dial remained static. Shipard pushed the control column further forward. The Beau responded dutifully and promptly entered a 'bunt' (a loop) before obliging Ship further by entering an uncontrollable inverted flat spin. Meanwhile, Oxby was being thrown about helplessly in the fuselage like a rag doll in a washing machine. He was terrified and not for the first time. In the end, Ship lost around 20,000ft of altitude before finally managing to regain control. Oxby had already been ordered to bail out. But somehow Doug had unintentionally caught his ripcord on an obstruction - causing his parachute to deploy whilst still inside the aircraft. Having struggled for several minutes now he was completely exhausted - and quite unable to effect an escape. Effectively trapped he lay back in the parachute silk - and prepared to meet his maker. In all, Merv and Doug walked away from no less than seven crashes - any one of which could easily have killed them. Several crashes resulted in the destruction of their aircraft. But they always seemed able to walk away from the wreckage - and the authorities in charge didn't seem to mind - so long as their tally of German aircraft remained greater than their losses of rather expensive Beaufighters. Whilst serving in the defence of Malta the squadron was re-equipped with new radar equipment. Doug explained 'Back then we were so short of juice that every operator was considered to be operational after just one twenty-minute practice'. Other crews spent weeks struggling with their unfamiliar equipment before becoming proficient. So it was surprising to find this crew seemed able to produce positive results after such a short practice period. Douggie laughed 'We did four sorties from Luqa (a key RAF airfield on Mata) on the same night' he said. Asked what luck he had had Doug replied 'One destroyed and one probable - both Heinkels. The probable was one of those annoying blighters that wouldn't burn. We chased it down from twelve to one thousand feet, and used all our ammo on it too'. It did not seem to strike him as anything of an achievement to get two visuals and combats straight off the reel with completely strange equipment. There was only a vague regret they hadn't properly fixed the probable. Doug Oxbury went on to fly with four more pilots and became the most successful radar operator / navigator of the war with a total of 22 confirmed kills; 13 with Merv Shipard. He was awarded the DSO, DFC and DFM. He passed away in 2009.

Olivia_De_Angelis_Saint_Ignatius_Arthur_James_Lee.pdf

Sahibjot_Kaur_OLSH_Charles_Rischbieth_Jury.pdf

Tovie_Hallion_Golden_Grove_HS_Patrick_George_Hallion.pdf

Vinka_Lakic_Endeavour_College_Michael_Cetinich.pdf

Vinka_Lakic_Endeavour_College_Michael_Cetinich.pdf

William_Simes_Loxton_HS_William_Charles_Kenwrick.pdf

Emma_Choi_Loretto_College_Lieutenant_Colonel_Henry_Simpson_Newland.pdf

David_Molton_Peek___E_Lockwood.pdf

Edgar_James__Kingston__McCloughry___S_Chen.pdf

Edgar_James_Esbary___A_Arbon.pdf