Last week I had a coffee/chat with Bev Thorn. I’m aware that there are two ladies, in Shepparton, with this name and by my calculations, they are also of a similar age. Because of this, I’ll explain that ‘my’ Bev — the one I spoke to last week — is the widow of Rupert.
Rupert was in the army during World War II but returned safely and passed away at 92 years of age.
Bev was wondering what to do with his army coat, in a way that would be fair to both of their daughters. She decided to create ‘something’, using a section of the coat. The item in the photo you see contains the fabric as a background. And includes the patches of the 2/24th Australian Infantry Battalion, which was a part of the 9th Division. This is just one of at least 20 items Bev has created in memory of her husband. They are all fantastic.
World War II
Bev has a record of Rupert’s service, which is quite unusual. Returned soldiers are known for their silence about a war — and Rupert didn’t give his wife or daughters any details. However, when grandsons came along, he opened up; and Bev wrote it all down.
In 1942, Rupert went to enlist. He was asked how many brothers he had at home. The answer was “none”. The sergeant told him to “go home and stay home”, adding “we don’t enlist only sons”. Rupert went home but he didn’t stay home, returning a couple of days later to encounter a different sergeant, who handed him his uniform.
His first posting was to the Middle East where they routinely did 20-mile marches. On one of these marches, they encountered a man on a donkey, with a woman walking beside him, carrying a huge bundle on her head. A bunch of our soldiers removed the man from his donkey and chased the animal away, leaving the very angry man to walk with his wife. There is no mention of whether the man shared her bundle — but they did pick up some Arabic swear words.
At this time, the 8th Division was struggling in New Guinea, probably because the troops had not been given jungle training. The 2/24th was sent home for this purpose, given some leave and posted to take on the Japanese in New Guinea. Here Rupert was a leading scout — going ahead of the battalion to warn of a Japanese presence in the area. He was given an Owen machine carbine. This was an Australian design first manufactured in 1942 and later to be called the ‘Digger’s Darling’. Perhaps Rupert was one of its earliest users.
The ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’ supplied them with food; a man they called the Padre (Salvos) brought biscuits and cigarettes. The Indigenous people were wise enough to stay away when the Japanese were attacking and, at one point, the 2/24th went hungry for three days. Once, the Padre was distributing his goods when there was an attack — the Aussies ran for the trenches. The Padre was too slow and there was no space, so he knelt and bent over a trench to protect his head. No, none of our boys got out to make room; they were too busy laughing at the target the Padre was presenting to the enemy.
Bev is a large part of this story, so I’ll tell you more next week. I will also tell you more about the wonderful sing-a-long on October 23 at 2pm — starring Cindy and Jeanette Doherty. It’s at the Tallygaroopna Memorial Hall. Keep the day free.
May it be easy, my friends.
Marnie
Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au
Phone: Text or call 0409 317187
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