Members of the Association will be pleased to learn of a welcome change made by the AWM Council in March this year. The AWM will now give full, retrospective recognition to servicemen who died during eligible, operational (non-war) service. We can be grateful to Neville Brown for this news (below) and his dedicated work towards recognition for these soldiers. Eligible servicemen who died in TPNG after World War II will be recorded now on the bronze panels of the AWM Roll of Honour.

Regular and National Servicemen who died in TPNG

I have attached a copy of a letter received from Dr. Brendan Nelson, Director, Australian War Memorial. It is in response to my letter to him to request that about a dozen former soldiers who died post WW2 in TPNG be placed on the Roll of Honour at the AWM. As you can see from the letter, he has agreed that PNG is within the new parameters for inclusion onto the AWM.

In due course, I will get a response and I will keep the Association updated.

You may be interested to know that there are two former Chalkies on the list, another two Nashos and WO1 Wilson. The names of the Chalkies I took from your website and I picked up WO1 Wilson from your site as well.

WO1 Wilson was an interesting man who served in 622 Bomber Squadron in WW2 and while you chaps might think you did well to be Sergeants at 21 he was a WO2 with nine months service flying missions over Europe at the same age. To cap it off, he also served in Korea. He was a Fairbridge boy from near Pinjarra, Western Australia so I trust his name makes the Roll of Honour. He served Australia well.

Neville Browne
RAAMC PNG 1967