NUMBER:

VX61256

BATTALION / UNIT / SHIP:

2/5th Infantry Battalion

PLACE & DATE OF BIRTH:

Leongatha 4 October 1914

NEXT OF KIN:

Olive Ketels, his wife  

PLACE & DATE OF ENLISTMENT:

8 August 1941 at Royal Park

LOCATION ON ENLISTMENT:

Leongatha 

OCCUPATION:

Grocer

PLACE & DATE OF DEATH:

27 January 1945, age 30, in Papua New Guinea.

LOCATION OF GRAVE/MEMORIAL:

He is buried in the Lae War Cemetery Papua New Guinea. 

His name is on the Leongatha Memorial and on his parent's grave in Leongatha Cemetery.

MILITARY/OTHER HISTORY:

Cliff lived in Leongatha with his family all his life until he enlisted in the army. 

He married Olive Hopkins who also lived in Leongatha with her family. Olive's father Keith Hopkins ran the local paper the Leongatha Echo. She ran this paper while her father was away at the war. Cliff and Olive had a baby girl Leanora. When the Leongatha Echo closed Olive and Leanora went to Warragul with the Hopkins family and Olive worked on the Warragul Gazette. Olive and Leanora eventually settled in Warrnambool. 

Cliff was a member of the 22nd Militia Battalion before the war. After enlisting he was placed in the 2/5th Battalion and trained in Ballarat, Seymour, Tenterfield, Bonegilla, and Cairns. Cliff embarked from Cairns in November 1944 and disembarked in Aitepe, Papua New Guinea. He was wounded in action on 27 January 1945 and died the same day.

The photograph names from left to right Cliff, Hugh, Katie, Vera, Fred and Pam