Scotch College

Who served in World War II?

How many Old Boys served in World War II? Who were they?
We simply do not know, but we are working on it.

During the war OSCA made valiant efforts to identify all serving Old Boys. The practical reason for doing so was that OSCA had resolved to waive its membership subscriptions. Also, as well as sending them the usual Collegians, OSCA also sent copies of Satura and other reading material such as novels and magazines.

All these were ‘very gratefully received as reading matter of interest to us is extremely difficult to obtain. No matter how old, they are eagerly read and sought for’ wrote Captain Hal Oxley (1933), 2/8 Battalion, AIF Abroad, on 7 October 1940. They ‘are eagerly read by all who manage to get hold of them’ (Lieut. Ian McDonald (1931), 24th Battery, 2/12 Field Regiment, 12 August 1943).

The Collegian ‘comes along all too seldom these days, but when it does arrive it certainly gets a warm reception. I know I wouldn’t miss it for anything’ (Able Seaman Rodney Taylor (1941), HMAS Cootamundra, 16 July 1943). ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed ... being in contact with the dear old School through the same pages’ (AC1 Randal Watt (1938), X-Ray Section, No. 3 RC, RAAF, 18 September 1943). ‘Reading matter is at a premium here and the [Collegian] has already been through several hands with myself reading the articles in between times’ (Gunner James Davis (1921), 5th Battery, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 4 September 1940).

As Major Donald Fraser (1918), 2/4 Field Regiment, AIF Abroad, wrote in late 1940, ‘Other Old Scotch Collegians in this regiment also appreciate this mark of remembrance from the school. Someone had a very happy thought to send the magazines.’ Old Boys’ letters to OSCA also give us glimpses of the war.

Gunner Frank Dean (1922) regretted that ‘Unfortunately I was too old to be recommended for a commission ... but at least I have three stripes. I hope to get a commission when we get into action’ (24 March 1941). Sure enough, by 1945 he was a Lieutenant. Wilfred Stone (1926) was called up for guard duty on the very first day of the war, as he already belonged to the Victorian Scottish Regiment and was sent to protect Fort Pearce, which guarded the entrance to Port Phillip. Cecil Norman Sandford (1927) spent much of the war on Coast Watch in New Guinea, for which he was awarded a DSO.

Steadily, OSCA’s Secretary, Keith McKinley Wilson (1927), amassed voluminous records of Old Boy servicemen that are today preserved in the Archives: forms, letters, memos, and notes of all shapes, sizes and colours. Wilson ran OSCA from a corner of his office in the family accounting firm, in the Stock Exchange Building, 422 Little Collins St. Soon he left for the war, too, and the task fell in 1942–43 to his elderly father, James McKinley Wilson (1891), and from 1943 to the new Secretary, Pat Wood (1930). It was a large undertaking. When the Military Cross awarded to Lieutenant Don Simonson (1936) was left out of one of OSCA’s published lists, and his father wrote to point this out, James Wilson replied that ‘I much regret the omission and can only account for it by the tremendous amount of work entailed ... in compiling the different lists’ (5 November 1943).

Despite all OSCA’s work, by 1943 it had only 420 names on its list and Gilray fretted ‘yet I feel there must be many others – if only they would let us know!’ By war’s end, OSCA knew of around 2500 Old Boys in uniform. Ultimately, however, this covered only Old Boys and families in contact with the School, together with a smattering of men dobbed in by other Old Boys in the same unit.

When today we pose the question Who served? we essentially start from scratch.

The majority of those who served can be found only by painstakingly checking 10,000 Old Boys of the right age against the war service records held in Canberra.

This is possible today because over the past ten years the Archives have developed the first full and accurate database of Scotch Collegians. This realises one of the school’s long-held dreams. It builds on the work of Percy Serle (1887) and Bruce Symon (1945) and has been brought to fruition by the boundless energy of Paul Mishura, who has gone through the School’s handwritten registers and student record cards and has checked each name against birth, marriage, and death certificates, and against cemetery and probate records.

Even so, it is no simple matter to reconcile our data with Canberra’s.

For a start, spelling differences abound, an unavoidable corollary of data derived from enlistment forms that were handwritten. Also, quite a few men changed the order of their first names, or omitted first names.

Worse, even something as basic as date of birth is no help. Why? Because many young men raised their age so as to be old enough to enlist and many older men lowered their age so as to be young enough.

Some men lowered their age by as much as five or six years. Thus William Gordon Ross (1927) born in 1909 enlisted in the RAAF with a birthdate of 1914, and went on to win the DFM. (The trick in altering your birthdate, we may note in passing, is to avoid being caught out. In order to be able to remember what you wrote on your enlistment form, it is best to change only the year of your birth but to keep the day and month the same. A man can be a bit unsure about which year he was born in, but if he seems not to know the day and month he looks suspicious, or a fool.) So, as I look up each Old Boy on-line to Canberra, if I cannot find an exact match I trawl around and often find him after all. All very time consuming, and yet it needs to happen as fast as possible.

What I am finding is, first, the numbers are swelling. The number of men named Algie swelled from one to five, and the number of Andersons from 18 to 43. In very round figures, for every 40 men already named by OSCA I seem to be adding another 60. If that trend holds, to OSCA’s 2500 I will be adding another 3600!

Secondly, I have already found one Old Boy who died on active service but about whom we had not known and who is not named among the fallen on the Honour Roll in the Memorial Hall: Flight Sergeant William Frederick Allsopp, of 460 Squadron, who died over north-west Europe on 9 April 1943. The cause of death is graphically described as ‘Flying Battle’.

Thirdly, the data can be useful. The two Algie brothers, James and John, were in the 11 Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps and when we find Roderick Algie there too, it does seem likely that he was their relative, which we had not previously known. Also, patterns of enlistment become discernible. When Robert Ingram (1934), DFC, was killed on 1 June 1943, his brother Ken (1940) joined up on 7 June.

The Alert Reader will have noted that many of the examples above are men whose surnames begin with ‘A’. I have a long slog ahead of me before I reach Zimmer.

You can check the list online at www.oscanet.com.au under ‘Archives – Lives’, or by ringing Jim Mitchell, Co-Archivist, on (03) 9810 4293. We welcome all comments, especially about men who served in the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force.

Our aim is to contact all living Old Boys who served in Australian or other forces or in the Merchant Marine, to invite them this 11 November to a service in the Memorial Hall followed by a luncheon.

Please do help us make sure that we invite everyone who is eligible.