Battalion scarves are now available

Limited stock so get in early!

$25 each (Association members), $35 (non-members), plus $5 postage

Contact Ron Lovett

r.c.lovett1@bigpond.com

0412618084

2/29th Memorial Service Strathdale - Sunday, 5 October 2025

Later this year the 2/29th Battalion Association will be holding a memorial service to honour the men of the 2/29th Battalion at Strathdale.

This service will be held on Sunday 5th October 2025 at 11am at the Sandakan Memorial located on McIvor Highway Strathdale (Bendigo)

We welcome all families and friends from Bendigo and surrounding areas at attend, we also encourage members of the 2/29th Family from Melbourne to make the pilgrimage.

We will publish further details at a later stage including accommodation options, there are motels across the road from the Sandakan Memorial and it is thought we will all meet at the Bendigo RSL for lunch after the event.

Save The Date!

"We Will Remember Them"

Applications open for the Ben Hackney Educational Grant 2026-2027

The Ben Hackney Educational Grant was established in 2018 to support a student entering VSC/HSC with costs associated with completing secondary school as well as promoting knowledge of the Battalion’s history to this generation of young people. The grant was provided over the two VSC/HSC years. From 2023 the Educational Grant has been expanded to support any student over two years of their secondary schooling.

The grant is funded by the Ben Hackney Trust. The Ben Hackney Trust is a charitable fund administered by three Trustees for the benefit of ex-members of the 2/29th Battalion AIF and their families.

This exciting opportunity provides to the successful applicant $1,000 per year, for the two years (2026 and 2027), to assist with the costs associated with their further education; as well as promoting knowledge of the Battalion’s history to this generation of young people today.

There is no application form, and one grant recipient will be selected based on the submission of a well-written and researched essay.

Applicants must:

* have a familial connection to a Veteran of the 2/29th Battalion AIF, and

* be entering Year 7 to Year 11 in 2026

Applications will be in the form of an essay which:

* outlines the applicant’s family connection to a 2/29th Veteran

* includes details of the veteran’s service

* includes details of the veteran’s life before and after the war

* uses anecdotal family memories, books, documents and/or research online

* is between 800 to 2000 words in length

* includes references and acknowledgment of online content

Applicants must include their contact details, name of school attending, favourite school subjects and other interests.

Applications must be submitted to the Grant Coordinator, Dianne Cowling at dianne.cowling@gmail.com no later than 15 November 2025. 

All applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome before the beginning of the 2026 school year. Payment of the grant to the successful applicant will occur in January 2026 and January 2027.

The successful essay will be published in the Association’s newsletter, and its author will be invited to attend the Annual Reunion Luncheon on 24 April 2026, accompanied by a responsible adult.

Enquiries can be made by contacting the current Grant coordinator, Dianne Cowling on 0412 297 368.

The Grant issued in previous years has been warmly welcomed, and the Trustees of the Ben Hackney Trust are pleased to again offer this biennial Grant opportunity to assist secondary students in the coming years.

Dianne Cowling, on behalf of the Educational Grant Sub-Committee

The 2/29th Battalion Service Record

The 2/29th Battalion Service Record is available online through the State Library of Victoria.

Here is the link:

http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV...

The Service record of the 2/29th Battalion kept in Changi prisoner of war camp contains name, rank, date marched in and marched out; also notes deaths, missing, executions, diseases

National Archives of Australia - searching for service records

Visit the National Archives of Australia website here; https://www.naa.gov.au/

Click RecordSearch from the NAA homepage

Enter the Service Number in the Keywords field

Search results will indicate if the digitalised copy is available

If only one record exists, your search will take you directly to the record

Battalion Association 2025 Calendar

2025 Calendars are now available! $5 includes postage in Australia.

Contact us! 0408 998 221

Ben Hackney Educational Grant

The Ben Hackney Educational Grant was established in 2018 to support a student entering VSC/HSC with costs associated with completing secondary school as well as promoting knowledge of the Battalion’s history to this generation of young people. The grant was provided over the two VSC/HSC years.

****In 2023 the Educational Grant has been expanded to support any student over two years of their secondary schooling****

This grant is funded by the Hackney Trust and will be awarded to one successful applicant. The student will receive an amount of $1,000 per year for two years to support their secondary education in 2024 and 2025. This includes students who further their education through a qualifying course/study.

Applicants must:

* have a familial connection to a Veteran of the 2/29th Battalion AIF, and

* be entering Year 7 to Year 11 in 2024

Applications will be in the form of a well written and researched essay which:

* outlines the applicant’s family connection to a 2/29th Veteran

* include details of the veteran’s service

* include details of the veteran’s life before and after the war

* uses anecdotal family memories, books, documents and/or research online

* is 800 to 2000 in length words

* include references and acknowledgment of online content

Applicants to include their contact details, name of school attending, favourite school subjects and other interests.

Applications must be submitted electronically to the Association Treasurer, Dianne Cowling at dianne.cowling@gmail.com no later than 30 November 2023.

All applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges and the successful applicant will be in receipt of the grant after the beginning of each school year.

The successful essay will be published in the Association newsletter and the successful applicant will be invited to attend the Annual Reunion Luncheon, with a responsible adult, on 24 April 2024.

Further details will be available at the AGM on 24 April 2023, alternatively contact Dianne.

We look forward to receiving applications for the 2024/2025 grant over the coming year.

Dianne Cowling Treasurer

2/29th Battalion AIF Association

dianne.cowling@gmail.com

Ben Hackney Educational Grant

The Ben Hackney Trust is a charitable fund administered by three Trustees for the benefit of ex-members of the 2/29th Battalion AIF and their families. The Trustees are the current President, Secretary and Treasurer of the 2/29th Battalion AIF Association Inc. There is no application form, but inquiries/requests can be made by contacting the current President, Treasurer or Secretary.

All applications will be treated in confidence and comply with the Privacy Act regulations.

Educational Grant for students entering VCE/HSC in 2023

An exciting opportunity exists for students entering Year 11 VCE/HSC in 2023 to receive a grant of $1,000 per year for two years (Yr 11 & Yr 12) to assist with the costs associated with the completion of the final years of secondary school, as well as promoting knowledge of the Battalion’s history to this generation of young people today. One grant only is available based on the submission of a well written and researched essay in this application round.

Applications are invited from a relative/descendant of a member of the 2/29th Battalion AIF who are entering Year 11 VCE/HSC in 2023.

Applications need to be an essay:

·       outlining the applicant’s family connection to a 2/29th veteran

·       details of the veteran’s service

·       details of the veteran’s life before and after war

·       using anecdotal family memories, books, documents, and/or research on-line

·       of 800-2000 words and include references and acknowledgement of on-line content

Applications must be submitted electronically to the Association Treasurer, Dianne Cowling at dianne.cowling@gmail.com no later than 13th November 2022. Applicants must include their contact details, name of school attending, favourite school subjects, and interests.

The winning applicant will be notified and in receipt of the grant for the beginning of the school year.

The successful essay will be published in the Association’s newsletter due out March 2023 and the successful applicant will be invited to attend the Annual Reunion Luncheon on 24 April 2023.

All applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges and their decision will be final.

For questions relating to this grant opportunity please contact Dianne Cowling at dianne.cowling@gmail.com

Ben Hackney Educational Grant

We are pleased to announce that Katie Lovett is the successful recipient of the 2021-2022 Ben Hackney Educational Grant.

Katie’s great grandfather, Captain Charles Lovett (VX39011) served in the 2/29th AIF Battalion.

Katie will be commencing Year 11 at Dromana College in 2021 and her successful submission follows:

Submission for 2/29th Battalion AIF Association Ben Hackney Testamentary Trust Education Grant 2020

My name is Katie Lovett, I am currently in year 10 at Dromana College going into year 11 as of 2021. I like 1960s/70s/80s classic rock music, vintage fashion, acting. When I complete my schooling, I hope to be a primary school teacher, so that means I will be studying VCE to go to university.

Therefore the Ben Hackney Trust Education Grant not only would be a huge honor for me to be awarded but it would also greatly help me pursue my studies.

Prologue

I’m 16 years of age and experiencing along with others, currently 8 months of restrictions from the Covid19 world pandemic which has included 13 weeks of stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne Victoria. This has meant I haven’t been to school, haven’t visited family or friends. Every time I do go out I have to wear a mask, I’ve missed out on my year 10 formal, my 16th birthday party to name but a few of the inconveniences. This pandemic has given me a small insight into what it must have been like during World War 2 when my Mama and Gramps would have been wondering every minute of every day for four and half years if there was going to be a future for them; very hard at my age, to contemplate the stress they must have endured then, some 75 years ago, as we live in this privileged time now, even with a little Covid lockdown inconvenience?

In thinking about what I would write it has always been our family’s pride in how my great grandmother and great grandfather loved each other so deeply. My essay sets out to acknowledge not only the amazing contribution of my Great Grandfather Captain Charles Lovett but also that of my Great Grandmother Isabella May Lovett (nee Blackburn) during and after the war, a story of commitment and love.

Although quite young I have seen with my involvement with the 2/29TH Battalion Association and in researching Mama’s and Gramp’s story that the women of the Association form an integral component of why this Association has continued to be relevant and above all an embodiment of the 2/29ers values of mateship and importance of family.

SC P125 In 1940 the AIF Women’s Association had been formed to support the families of overseas servicemen. By October of that year the AIFWA was assisting the wives, mothers and sisters of more than 6000 POW’s captured in North Africa and the Middle East. AIFWA membership and welfare work expanded rapidly after the fall of Singapore, and there was soon an 8th Division AIF (Victorian Units) Soldiers Amenities Fund Auxiliary working to raise funds for POW’s in the Pacific. Each Battalion had its own Auxiliary and the 2/29th Battalion Welfare Auxiliary held events to raise money and donated to the Red Cross, Comfort Funds and held Christmas parties for Battalion children. Perhaps more importantly they kept the memory of their men alive, honouring the dead at the Shrine on ANZAC Day and placing In Memoriam notices on the Battle of Muar.

Being the strong, proud and determined women they were, they even demonstrated their love for their men by “objecting strongly to press calling the 8th Division the ‘Lost Division’ and its battalions ‘Lost Battalions.’”

I believe the 2/29th Battalion Association’s women’s love and determination lives on just as strongly today, embodied in those such as Beris and Janella Christie, Joy Derham, Dianne Cowling, Lorraine Crawford, Marg Hogan, Marion Stiles, Sue Lack, Katie Parnell and especially my grandma nanny Nola (deceased) to name but a few, who continue to honour the memory of the 2/29ers.

For ease in reading I have generally referred to my great grand mother Isobel May Lovett as May, the name she was known by and my great grandfather Captain Charles Geoffrey Lovett as Charles.

“I Go to Return”

(A story of Love, Honour, Sacrifice and Service)

In their words, Mama and Gramps’ Story from 1933-1946

When my mama (May) and gramps (Charles) were my age, 16, it was 1933. I’m just trying to imagine what life was like for them then as 16 year olds in Camperdown, country Victoria. The thing I do know it was vastly different to the Australia I live in today.

CGLM Charles was born in 1917 during WWI (1914-1918) and was 12 and a half years old during the Great Depression of 1929-31 so he obviously grew up knowing the hardships of life and that war was part of life. He also commenced work at 12 years of age which is inconceivable to me as I live in this privileged time in Australia’s history.

In 1934, Charles joined the C.M.F. (Citizen Military Forces) formed from Geelong and was called the 23rd/21st City of Geelong Regiment (Battalion). Companies were formed at Colac, Camperdown, Toorang and Warrnanbool. He was 16 at the time! What made him join the military at that young age? I can only assume that maybe he joined for adventure, it seems outrageous to me, as I want to live my life first. I would maybe think about something like that when I was 21 or so. Maybe he joined because he was in search of new memories, I would have loved to have talked to him about this? Or was it because of his understanding of the social thinking at that time that there would be more conflict in the world? Is it possible that he saw this as a way to advance his life from working on a milk farm as a labourer? He maybe wanted to learn new skills such as combat, survival, discipline, reliance on teamwork, learning how to operate guns, wearing a uniform? As I discovered he travelled to camps all around Victoria for training and he said he had a great time.

Engagement Photo of May and Charles 1938

In 1935 at seventeen years of age, Charles met May Blackburn at a dance in Derrinalum. Charles had an old dodge car and he used to drive the ‘Cuckoo’ Orchestra around the various places at night for the dances. May and Charles love story had commenced.

Between 1935-38, the C.M.F went to camp usually during the summer and Charles noted they had a great time at these camps. Perhaps more importantly he recalled that May and he were going great guns, a saying well used in those times meaning their relationship was successful and moving ahead quite quickly. He noted that he had been accepted into the Blackburn family and as he had managed to get together a few pounds he proposed to May and was accepted.

May and Charles were married at Camperdown on September 21st 1940. Charles’s uniform for their wedding was lent to him by his friend LT Ross McLeod from Noorat until his arrived from the government clothing factory which he had to pay for.

With war on the horizon and Charles heavily involved in Army training meant they were apart a fair bit during their early married life.

Photo of May and Charles Wedding Party 21st September 1940

CGLM War was declared in Europe on the 3rd-9th September 1939. Being in the C.M.F Charles was called up for duty immediately in ‘C’ Company and was sent to Queenscliff near Geelong as a platoon Sergeant to guard the lighthouse/search light and foreshore on the Bellarine Peninsula, he was 23 years of age. Following military camp at Mount Martha and officers training camp at Seymour and a Second Lieutenants commission, Charles joined the newly formed 2/29th Battalion A.I.F. doing final training at Bonegilla near Aubury.

NLB P57 /CGLM Prior to the 2/29th Battalion’s embarkation Charles was able somehow to get a message to May that he was on the advance party from Bonegilla that went to the ship at Port Melbourne wharf. On the 30 July 1941 May came down from Camperdown and they were able to meet briefly at the gate on the wharf. They said goodbye through the fence because they, the army personnel, were locked in. May commented that she didn’t know Charles was going to Malaya! She couldn’t quite realize that he was going away at all, it took a while to sink in and yet May never ever felt that he wouldn’t come back. May said we’ve still got the little boomerang which I sent to Charles in Malaya, it just had written on it I go to return. Charles added that little boomerang arrived in an airmail letter the day before the 2/29th Battalion went into Muar, I’ve kept it ever since I go to return.

CGLM The 2/29th Battalion sailed on the 31st July 1941 from Port Melbourne on a Dutch ship, the Mannix Van St Aldergon via Fremantle and Perth arriving in Singapore on 15th August 1941.

Charles recalled that “little did they know that holding May’s hands through the iron gates at the Port Melbourne Wharf would be the last time they would touch each other for 4 ½ years, thank god we didn’t realize it at that moment.”

CGLM November 1941 from Singapore, Charles’s ‘B’ Company was detached to Kluang in Malaya for aerodrome defense and shortly after intelligence had reported a Japanese convoy was headed their way and on the 29th December they were bombed by 21 Japanese planes on Hospital Hill Kluang, which Charles recalls was the first Australians in action in Malaya. About the 10th January 1942 they were moved to Yong Peng and the on the morning of the 17th January 1942 they were moved towards the town of Muar and at dusk reached Bakri and were fired on by the Japanese. ‘B’ Company were allotted the right forward company and ‘C’ Company the left forward company. Thus commencing the famous 2/29th Battle of Muar.

On the morning of the 22nd January 1942, Captain Charles received orders to break off the action and to try and make their own way back to Yong Peng with no maps, all exhausted and hungry, six days since food and he wounded. Somehow he and his small group made it through to Yong Peng and for Charles to hospital on Singapore Island to get his wound fixed. Charles rejoining his Battalion on the 12th February 1942 still with an open wound in his back and now in their final position on Singapore Island on the 13th February. At approximately 7pm on the 15th February 1942 Charles was advised of the surrender and the cease fire, recalling how unbelievably quiet it was noting all their disappointment and that they didn’t know what was in store for them, thus started their life or hell as Japanese Prisoners of War!

NLB P229 May first knew something was wrong when she read in the Camperdown paper one Monday morning early in 1942 that Colonel Robertson and Bill Carr had been killed in action. May knew that Charles would have been in action then, but she went off to her work at Eckt’s Drapery shop in Camperdown. In those days, when there were war casualties, the Church Minister always came round and told the family. Later that day May saw Reverend Ross Williams walking in the front of the shop she thought ‘Ah, no!’ May said her ‘heart went to the bottom of her boots.’ The Minister called out to May “it’s alright, he’s only wounded!’ and then he apologized that he’d come down to tell her, he said he could tell by the look and May’s face that she expected the worst.” Shortly afterwards a telegram from the Ministry of the Army informed May that Charles was missing believed prisoner of war.

Following that telegram May heard nothing for three years until the Red Cross advised that a Captain Lovett had been mentioned in a letter from another prisoner of war. There was nothing further.

NLB P231 May concluded ‘in the circumstances, the only thing to do was to hope for the best, knitting five jumpers for Charles while he was away’ and against the advice of those who suggested that her activity was futile. Families made every possible effort to communicate with their sons and husbands. May and others in her position got word, she thinks from the Red Cross, that they could write 25 words a month. Charles didn’t get many (any) of the many cards May sent. Charles’ mother and May used to sit and try and write something about her family and his family so he’d know everyone was well. May’s father and grandfather died while Charles was away, but they never mentioned that, Charles found out when he got back.

Wives, fiancées and parents were making their own contributions to the war effort. May served as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) at the local hospital in Camperdown. Her daily shifts were from six to ten o’clock. The VAD association also organized raffles and stalls as fund raisers. Many of the women also knitted and sent to the men socks and balaclavas, most of which never arrived at their intended destinations. May also ‘plane-spotted’ every Wednesday night, a job that required training in plane identification and wind directions. She later received an Australian Government decoration for her war service work.

CGLM After a short POW internment in Selerang/Singapore, Gramps left Singapore harbor in ‘A’ Force bound for the Burma line. Following an arduous trip in the galley of the ship they reached Victoria Point in Burma (Myanmar) and the start of their terrible experiences as Japanese Prisoners of War working on the Death Railway commencing at Tavoy (where Charles helped organize the 1942 Tavoy Exceptional Melbourne Cup), Ye, Thanbysyat and his many assignments to the 14, 50, 53, 75 and 105 kilometer POW camps.

CGLM P13 Xmas Day 1943 the emperor in his generous heart gave Charles’s camp two pigs which they turned into a feast, a very rare occurrence. They had not received any mail up to now but did receive one Red Cross parcel divided between six. It was from America and Charles noted it was very good and amongst its content was a tin of condensed milk which they donated to the sick men in their camp hospital.

NLB P234 Some families did not receive telegrams, but learned of their loved ones survival from lists in newspapers and even news that might even be shouted over a fence by a neighbour. However the news was conveyed, the realization that the loved one was safe was a moment for celebration. In many cases it was an opportunity for soldiers’ friends and extended family to share in the excitement. Others like May Lovett waited and waited she recalled ‘there were prisoners of war from Camperdown but she hadn’t got any word at all regarding Charles. In the small country town of Camperdown everybody knew everybody and even May’s mother said “Ah, you’ve got to realize he won’t be coming home!”

CGLM Charles somehow survived the war battles, being wounded in action, the nightmare of the infamous Burma Death Railway including bashings’, sickness from malaria, dysentery, diarrhea, pellagra, cholera, malnutrition, Berri Berri and tropical pamphosis (scabies) to complete the railway and then be transported in cramped railway boxes to Bangkok on the 29th June 1945 which just happened to be his 27th birthday.

From Bangkok, they were marched to Nakon Naoke about 100 kilometers out of Bangkok where on the 17th August 1945 they were advised the war had ended.

Picture of Captain Charles Lovett in Thailand September 1945 before he departed back to Australia.

Captain Charles immediately volunteered with other officers to take charge of the camp of about 500 ORs (ordinary ranks) until he was eventually flown in early October 1945 from Bangkok to Singapore on DC3 Douglas and then shipped back to Australia on the Circassia ship arriving back in Melbourne on the 27th October 1945 and discharged from the army on the 12th December 1945 having spent 38 days in the service in Australia and 1,559 days (nearly 4 and a half years) service outside Australia.

May got word six weeks after everybody else had got home to say that he was safe and well. Captain Charles Lovett was responsible for compiling the list of names to come home and ‘he forgot to put his own name on it!’

In that October 1945 May remembers her feelings that ‘It was unbelievable, she couldn’t describe how she felt’, she brought out the champagne. Prior to May getting word that her Charles had survived the war, the licensed grocery in Camperdown had brought a bottle of champagne up to her, everybody knew Charles was missing and he said ‘This is to be opened when Charles comes back.’ So May her grandmother and mother, in those days the older people didn’t drink much, all opened the champagne and it had gone vinegary and May’s Gran said ‘well, if that’s champagne, I don’t think much of it!’

Stuart Gray and Charles came home on the Circassia, a D-Day landing ship. Charles recalls it was a rough old ship but it felt like luxury to them after their POW life. Charles felt they were only ‘odd bods’ (old Australian term used back then to describe a person who is strange or unusual) when they came home as they didn’t come back with the rest of the 2/29th Battalion because their war had ended up in Siam’ (Thailand).

NLB P241 The main welcome home for 2/29ers and others was 11 October 1945 at Spencer Street Station. For many the day they arrived home bought confusion and a sense of anticlimax. Charles speaks of those who had been in Burma (Myanmar) and then Thailand. They weren’t in that Spencer Street group and as they only arrived on the 27th October were never officially welcomed home! Indeed Charles remembers his arrival as ‘very traumatic. Colonel Lloyd’s and Charles’s gear went missing from the wharf in Melbourne, so they spent all day chasing it. Charles had souvenirs with his gear which included a Japanese (Officers) sword, still a treasured item retained respectfully in the Lovett family.

On the 27th October 1945 at 11am Charles’s ship docked at Port Melbourne and then they walked to Royal Park to meet their families. May and Charles walked past each other without recognizing one another.

Charles was only seven stone three (45.8kg) on his return and felt he was in reasonable health considering. May on the other hand remembers that ‘Charles looked dreadful, you wouldn’t have recognized him, he was skinny, had very dark rings under his eyes and his hair had been cut very short. May had only ever seen Charles with thick wavy hair and now it was almost shaved.

After four and half years apart, given the circumstance, it was probably only natural for them not to recognize each other, ‘strangers for a time’, however that they soon sorted it out.

Captain Charles Lovett (‘B’ Company ‘A’ Force) (VX39011) Service Record

May’s War Service Medal

Isabella May Lovett was awarded the Civilian Service Medal 1939-1945 established on 28th October 1994 by letters Patent to recognize the service of eligible civilians in Australia during WWII who served in arduous circumstances in support of the war effort as part of organizations with military-like arrangements and conditions of service such as the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA), VAD Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), the Civil Constructional Corps (CCC) and the Red Cross Emergency Service Companies.

NLB P243 Charles on their return to Camperdown found that his parents and his brother had left farming, something he had expected to resume after his war service.

Photo of May and Charles with their friends Marg and Les Atyeo at the Melbourne Cup 6th November 1945.

NLB P245/CGLM Some ex POW’s eased themselves back into work after their service and ordeal. Others threw themselves into work. In February 1946, Charles and May visited Charles brother in Maryborough in Central Victoria and they jointly started Maryborough Dairies Pty Ltd.

Charles got straight back into it, straight away. He and May decided that they wanted to try to forget about the whole thing, the war, and they agreed for them with the benefit of hind side, it was the best thing they ever did.

NLB P249 Charles having joined his brother as a partner in Maryborough Dairies, with May at his side all the way, through hard work, acquisition and business acumen their business flourished. May helped a lot in the dairy washing bottles and filling them with milk on hand machines whilst Charles did deliveries from 2am to household customers finishing about 9am, then he would start deliveries to shops. Life for both of them was ‘damn busy’. Eventually Charles and May purchased his brothers interest and they ran the Business successfully until retirement in 1996, 50 years on.

Throughout May and Charles’s lives they continued to contribute to the local community, two highly respected people in their community.

Charles expressed in his memoir the admiration and love he had for May noting that she has been a great citizen serving on numerous committees such as T.L. Stone Kindergarten, State school 404, Maryborough Gold & Bowls Club, Rotary Inner Wheel, Legacy and involved in Red Cross and the Maryborough hospital.

Charles further noted in his Memoir this love and his ‘great thanks and admiration to May his wife for her wonderful love and care of him, the great life she gave him and their children. To wait for him for 4 ½ years to come home from war was to him proof of their love. Then to have three wonderful children speaks for itself of the great times they’ve had together, believing it was due to May’s wonderful motherly instinct and care of family.

May and Charles are survived by three children, five grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

Photo of Captain Charles Lovett’s boomerang and dog tags, the Boomerang that May sent to Charles received just before the Battle of Muar in 1942, surviving four and half years of war and POW, indeed “I go to return.” NLB P228

Interviews

To understand May and Charles’ story more fully, I spoke with their children my Auntie Dianne, Uncle Geoffrey and my Grandfather Ron who made the following comments on their Mum and Dad’s special relationship no doubt strengthen through adversity.

Dianne’s most vivid memory is when May’s Nana died, Isobel, my great great Grandmother. Auntie Di’s mum, May, rushed to Camperdown when her mum was admitted to hospital, she died overnight. Di and her dad, Charles, drove down the next day. When they arrived at Nanas house her mum rushed out and clung to her dad for what seemed an eternity, no one else existed. Di noted that Thursday mornings were special to her Mum and Dad as it was the only time her Dad had off for the whole week and they liked to spend it quietly in each other’s company.

They clearly not only loved each other but also life, I think they had lost time to catch up on! Di recalled how every year they went to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup Carnival, rain hail or shine they attended all the special race days. They did this for 40 years. They always stayed at the Victoria Hotel in Little Collins Street. This hotel is still there. Di’s mum and dad shared many things, golf, Rotary, Legacy, a love of horse racing. Her dad owned thoroughbred horses and was the President of the Maryborough Racing Club. Di also remembers how in their 50’s her mum and dad travelled overseas extensively with their favourite destination being the British Isles, and with her Mum having an encyclopaedic knowledge of the British monarchy they had great joy in visiting all the castles, villages, battlefields in Scotland, Britain, Ireland and Wales.

However Auntie Di’s most vivid and lasting memory is the love her mum and dad constantly showed for her, Geoffrey and Ron, it was part of their everyday life. Di explained how her mum and dad, May and Charles, were never shy to show affection for each other in front of us children which left us with a lasting positive comforting memory.

Geoffrey’s single abiding memory of his mum and dad is that his dad never left the house without kissing his mum goodbye, and never returned without kissing her. They always seemed happiest in each other’s company, although they had a wide circle of friends. Uncle Geoff explained how whenever they were out in public his mum always had her arm through his dads, which Geoff noted, is what couples did in the 40s 50s and 60s. People didn’t really hold hands.

Geoff noted that his dad worked incredibly hard for many years whilst he was getting the dairy business established, 7 days a week, often starting at 2.00am, no holidays for 14 years after returning from the war. Geoff was very clear how they were both on the journey together with his mum always supporting dad, often pitching in to help. Things such as washing milk bottles by hand, making butter and doing the accounts. Finally Geoff said that us three children were raised in a home filled with love and they couldn’t have wished for better role models to shape their lives.

Ron, my grandfather’s, two most vivid memories of his mum and dad were when Charles came in from work every day after delivering milk from 3am in the morning, greeting his mum May in the kitchen with a big hug and kiss and loving embrace, their love for each other was obvious and gave us children a profound meaning of love. Never did he hear a harsh word or quarrel between them in all his life.

Pop Ron also recalls as a young child waking up early some mornings and hearing screaming outside. Going into his mum’s bedroom she consoled him with the understanding that it was his dad, in the horse paddocks in the abandoned gold digging holes that were part of the dairy house property, having a malaria reoccurrence and not to worry about it as they were becoming less frequent for your dad. Pop Ron explained that these episodes as with Dads’ war experience were never discussed and believed that it was not only a Malaria reoccurrence he was dealing with but maybe also the terrors of what he had experienced in the war and as a POW?

My Family and Battalion Involvement

Great Grandfather Charles passed away when I was 8 months old and I was 4 years and 3 months old when my Great Grandmother May passed away. Sadly I wasn’t able to get to know them really well, but through family story telling I think I know that they were very special people who certainly touched many lives with their positivity towards life.

I was born on the 13th April 2004 and attended my first luncheon on the 24th April (11 days old) that year and ever one since. When we were old enough, my sister Missy and I have been selling the Battalion merchandise at the Reunion lunches. Our family also attends the Battle of Muar commemoration service at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance and other 2/29th association functions. In 2012 I also commenced marching in the Melbourne Anzac Day March behind the Battalion Banner. Except off course this year 2020 with them all cancelled due to the Covid19 pandemic lockdown in Victoria.

Photo of Charles, May, Dad, Mum and I at 1 month old in 2004.

My Mum and Dad are very committed to the battalion, my Dad was honored to be elected to the association committee starting in 2013 as Assistant Secretary, 2014 as Honorary Secretary and from 2015 to current as President.

I am forever thankful that I have a heritage that includes my Gramps who served his nation with distinction and sacrifice and Mama who served our great Country Australia as well with distinction.

Mama and Gramps example of survival, resilience, honour, mateship, service and love of family and quiet disposition gives me strength and inspiration to achieve my goals in life.

“I go to return” – the start of a next chapter

Katie Lovett

12/11/2020

katievlovett@bigpond.com

Acknowledgements

My mum Sharon and dad Simon Lovett for their guidance and support of me in all my endeavours and how proud I am of them for their commitment and service to the 2/29th Battalion Association.

I am proud to be part of the 2/29th Battalion Family and for the love and inspiration all the amazing women in the Association have shown to me during my 16 years involvement, so far, with the 2/29th Association.

To my grandfather Poppy Ron Lovett who has guided me through his vast library of Lovett and 2/29th Battalion books, memorability, records and Great Grandad Charles’s memoir to create this essay.

Bibliography:

Published Sources:

(NLB) No Lost Battalion- Edited by John Lack with Peter Hosford 2005

(BH) A History of the 2/29th Battalion- 8th Australian Division AIF- Edited by R.W. Christie, secretary of the Unit Association and Mr. Robert Christie 1983/85/91/2003

(SC) Surviving Captivity Surviving by RW Christie/Edited by John Lack 2010

Unpublished Sources:

(CGLM) Memoir The Life and Times of Charles Geoffrey Lovett 29/6/1917 – 23/12/2004 written by C.G.Lovett - Unpublished

Interviews:

Dianne Lovett (Daughter of May and Captain Charles Lovett) Geoffrey Lovett (Son of May and Captain Charles Lovett) Ron Lovett (Son of May and Captain Charles Lovett)

Submission by Katie Lovett

For the 2/29th Battalion AIF Association Ben Hackney Testamentary Trust Education Grant 2020

12 November 2020

Battalion Association 2020 Calendar

Thanks to the generous support of Ryman Healthcare the Battalion Association has produced wall calendars for 2020!

The calendars contain moving images of the Thai Burma Railway, Kanchanaburi military cemetery and Hellfire Pass.

They are $10 each which includes postage throughout Australia.

Contact Joy Derham to place your order.
We only have a limited amount!

Joy Derham
joyderham1@bigpond.com
0429 850 575

Payment details for bank transfer
Include your surname.
229th Battalion AIF 
BSB 033-337 
Account 197452

BRAND NEW MERCHANDISE.., BATTALION STUBBY HOLDERS....

Check out our latest run of new merchandise, The Great Australian Stubby Holder. You can find it in our Battalion Shop or if you would prefer you can contact us via our Facebook Page and we can make arrangements for your purchase.

Proposed Commemorative Trip to Myanmar and Thailand

A few of us are visiting Burma this year to commemorate the 75th

Anniversary of the running of the Tavoy Melbourne Cup

on November 2nd 2017

Some members of the 2/29th were sent as POW's to Burma as part of A FORCE. We have at least two members of the Association whose fathers were in Tavoy at that time and Loris Fletcher does have in her possession the actual cup won by her father Wif Muir. Ron Lovett's father was the winning owner.

Some of us are planning to go to Burma in November and we still have some places available. See the attached itinerary (below) and costs for the Burma. Following Burma a fewer number were planning to break the trip in Thailand on the way home and do a run along the Railway to Three Pagoda pass and that is the second itinerary and we have places available on that section. If we get the required numbers from the Burma trip to stop over it may be the short itinerary as outlined, if however you were wanting to have time in Bangkok either going or returning home, and provided we have numbers we will change the itinerary to accommodate that.

Proposed Burma Itinerary

Proposed Thailand Itinerary

PLEASE CONTACT. DOUG OGDEN 03 9844 1355 or email:  superog@bigpond.com

Brand New Merchandise Available

We have produced PVC Velcro Backed 2/29 Battalion Association Morale Patches, they will attach to any Velcro Hoop surface...

To compliment these great Patches we have teamed them up with 5.11® Flag Bearer Caps in 3 great colour schemes, Black, Storm (Grey) and Multicam. These caps already have Velcro Hoop on the front panel for quick and easy attachment, as well they are one size fits all with elasticised head band and Velcro adjustment strap at the back.....

Prices:

Cap with Patch - $25.00

Patch - $10.00

For Orders please inbox the Facebook page

Get yourself a Cap & Patch, it would be a great spectacle with all of us wearing them on ANZAC DAY in the March.

March Information - Anzac Day in Melbourne 2015

The 8th Division will depart from 9:45 am from Flinders Street East (St Paul’s side). Please assemble behind the 2/29th banner.

Descendants are to dress in appropriate clothing, as your forebears would have done. Therefore, all marchers should wear neat and tidy clothing, out of respect for the fallen (denim, sporting attire, joggers are not considered appropriate).

Medals worn by descendants are to be worn on the right breast (the left breast is reserved for the original recipient of the medals).

Carrying of pictures of relatives, and the pushing of prams and pushers, is not permitted.

Vale - Beth McRae

The death of Beth McRae, widow of Cpl Don McRae of the 2/29th Battalion AIF, and a staunch supporter of our Association, occurred, suddenly after a short illness, on Saturday, June 22nd.

A memorial service was held at St Columba's Uniting Church, Balwyn, on Wednesday, July 3rd.

Janella Christie, John Lack and Doug Ogden were among the many mourners paying their respects.

The Association sends its condolences to Heather, and to her brother Andrew and his family.

Norman Carson Letts (VX63740) 1922 – 2012

Norm Letts was born in Wedderburn, where he was known from boyhood as 'Digger'. His father was the mail driver (horse and buggy), and 'Digger' milked cows for cocky farmers around Boort. He enlisted at 19 in September 1941, trained at Darley near Bacchus Marsh, at Bonegilla and at Queenscliff, before embarking on the Aquitania from Sydney. Arriving in Singapore on 10 January 1942, he became a 2/29th Battalion reinforcement, as part of C Company. After the surrender, and the march to Changi, Norm went into Singapore on work parties, including building the Japanese shrine at Bukit Timah. With F Force on the Thai-Burma Railway at Kami Songkurai in Thailand, Norm worked with Jack Coffey, 'a good bloke', and 17-year- old Bobby Harvey [Nancarrow], 'a good worker'. Other mates Norm recalled were Queenslander 'Snowy' Reid, and Doug Cameron and Gordon Wilson (both from Camperdown). Norm also was part of a six-man team on a pile driver sinking bridge poles. Cholera was the big killer: 'there was a big red-headed Queenslander got it. He was crook all right. He was a married bloke, four kids, and I abused him something terrible [to try to save him], but he said "I'll be dead in the morning, Norman." . . [And] he was dead in the morning.' Norm was at Hellfire Pass, where he survived beri-beri and Japanese brutality. 'Some [officers] tried, put it that way, they tried to get a bit less work out of you, but there wasn't much they could do. They'd stand up for you, but they copped their share [of bashing] then. They didn't miss out.' Back on Singapore Island, Norm dug tunnels at River Valley Road, but they were not permitted to timber them properly and there were many earth falls: 'a bloke we called "Goofy", he was a good bloke, as far as Japs went. He'd give us his dinner and go down the street and buy his own. He was the only one, old "Goofy".' When the war ended Norm and five mates crammed into an Austin and drove around Singapore. As for taking revenge on their tormenters, Norm decided, after looking at the young blokes in camp in Singapore, 'I couldn't hit an innocent bloke. They were only doing [to us] what they had been told [to do].....They were only kids. They were, they were only kids. I picked.....out one who'd given me a belting, but he was only young. I just couldn't hit him'.

Norm came home on the Largs Bay in October 1945. He went back to milking cows at Boort, then went to Barham, and returned to Wedderburn, cutting eucalyptus leaf for eucalyptus oil, then went shearing for 30 years. In 1946 Norm met Jessie, a telephonist at Wedderburn, and they married in 1948 when 'Digger' was working at the Barham brick works. 'You missed your mates for a fair while. That's when I got into Barham. There were a few of us working there, at the brick works.' Over the years, Norm and Jessie kept in contact with Norm's army mates, attending reunions in Tassie and Queensland, sometimes meeting them in Sydney, combining meetings with visits to their daughters in Sydney and Brisbane. 'When they'd get together,' Jessie recalled, 'then they'd talk about all the good times, not the bad times, the good times.'

When Marguerite spoke with Norm in August 2011, he and Jessie had been married 63 years, and Norm was 89: 'heading 90, I'll make 90'. And he did, passing away at 90 years of age at Bendigo Hospital, Victoria, on 16 September 2012. His funeral service was held at the RSL in Wedderburn.

John Lack

Hal Rouvray Thirlwell (VX59292) 1921 – 2012

Hal Thirlwell was born in East Melbourne, of Scottish and American ancestry, on 5 July 1921. Both Hal and his brother sang in the St James' and St Pauls' choirs and received scholarships to Trinity Grammar, and later to Caulfield Grammar. These scholarships were very welcome in the depths of the Great Depression: 'People had money, no doubt,' he recalled, 'but we didn't.' In 1936 Hal left school to work at Myer' s, and after a year he moved to Flinders Lane as an office boy for a firm of textile importers: 'They were all First World War fellows, and I was the general rouseabout. I was there until the war started.' He also enlisted in the Militia, and in 1940 was part of the 5th Battalion, Victorian Scottish Regiment.

Hal's older brother 'Mac' enlisted in the AIF and went away with the 9th Division to the Middle East, where at Tobruk he fought, was wounded, and won the Military Cross. In 1941 Hal also enlisted in the AIF: 'My mother wasn't very happy about it. But in those days people just - took it on the chin, as it were, when their sons enlisted. They had no real option, assuming that you're old enough.' Hal went AWOL to farewell his family, and was demoted from Lance Corporal to Private!

When he joined the 2/29th Bn AIF as a private on Singapore Island on Australia Day, 26 January 1942, the Battalion was being re-formed after suffering frightful losses at Muar and Bakri in Malaya. Hal was one of the few 600 reinforcements who had some training and experience, from being in the Militia, and he was given charge of a Great War-vintage Lewis machinegun. Hal's reminiscences of the frustrating defence of Singapore are featured in the book No Lost Battalion. On 15 February Hal became one of many thousands of Australians interned at Changi. He joined working parties at Thompson Road, and in April 1943 went away to Thailand with Pond's Party of F Force. They started with a forced march of almost 200 kms from Banpong to Koncoita, two-thirds of the way to the Burmese border. During the subsequent eight months of working up and down the line, almost three in every ten of the men of F Force died as a result of malnutrition, mistreatment, and disease.

Hal contracted malaria in May 1943, the first of what he calculated was about one hundred episodes: 'But you sort of got used to it. It was a way of life'. Cholera was another matter. Cholera almost guaranteed death. On 14 July Hal was thought to have contracted cholera at Takunun (120 km from Banpong), and along with 67 others was placed in isolation. He had had other health problems too, but in his self- deprecating way said 'lots of people had to put up with much worse.' On the last day of August 1943, debilitated, and suffering weakness in the limbs from beri-beri, he became one of Pond's Party evacuated south to the hospital at Wanyai. It was no easy passage. Paralysed from the waist down, Hal had to be carried out of Takunun, feeling guilty 'because these same guys who were carrying me were in very bad physical condition'. So when his right leg improved, he forced himself to walk, crab-like, sideways, with his left knee locked.

Hal's weight had dropped from a normal 12 – 12 ½ stone to around seven stone. He put his survival down to 'learning to live with' what befell you, insisting that 'it was just a fluke that I got through'. But another survivor of F Force and of that evacuation described Hal's literally dragging himself hand over hand along the railway as one of the most courageous acts he had ever seen.

Hal was in Changi when the war ended, and he was restless on his return to Australia. After some years managing Victorian country chain stores he went to the UK, where he met and in 1954 married Mary and brought her to Australia. Back in Melbourne he returned to the business of textile importing in Flinders Lane before he started his own business, which he sold upon his retirement in 1991.

Hal was devoted to the welfare of the fellow members of his Battalion and their families through his membership of the 2/29th Battalion AIF Association and his work as a Committee member. He died peacefully in the Epworth Hospital on 29 March 2012, survived by Mary, their two children and their two grandchildren. His ashes have been placed in a niche at the wall of remembrance at Springvale Cemetery. The family of the Battalion Association salutes him.

John Lack

George Henry Clifford Tite (VX56209) 1923-2011

Elspeth McOmish interviewed George on 9 May 1999 and his story was told in No Lost Battalion, on which this tribute has been based.]

George was born in 1923, the seventh of six boys and six girls. He grew up in North Melbourne, where his father was a bottle-oh for a Carlton marine dealer, and went to Errol Street State School, leaving before he was 14 with His Merit Certificate to go dairy farming in South Gippsland. George recalled he came home from Gippsland looking around for a job and 'a fortnight after [the third of my brothers enlisted] I went and joined the Army. It was not patriotism. There was no work. In the Army you got three feeds a day and something to wear.' He joined up on 20 May 1941, and turned 18 seven days after landing in Singapore.

After Muar and Singapore Island, George found himself in Changi, where the Battalion cooks struggled to learn how to cook rice: 'they soon learned. . .Usually you got about one cupful or two, three times a day. That was at the start, of course.' He missed being assigned to F Force by being hospitalised with failing eyesight due to dietary deficiencies, but was chosen for J Force, leaving for Japan in May 1943: 'That was going to be the best camp of the lot, was going to be a recuperation camp for the sick and the dying and the wounded. And so it was. You worked or you died. So that was the recuperation camp.' George spent 2V2 years in the Kobe House camp holding 900 POWs of 14 nationalities including 300 Australians. Conditions were extreme: 95-96 degrees F in summer, as low as 20 F (below freezing) in winter. He had only two baths in those years. His two best friends were older men, one of whom more or less fathered him, and Peter Omarides, 'a marvellous man' who would carry the loads of the sick. The Japanese officers were very severe. . . None were friendly.' Only by fixing on the future, and surveying their lot with wry humour, did the survivors survive. George missed out on malaria, but had dengue fever. Thirty days work was followed by a day off, when you cleaned camp, so you never really got a day off at all. Ten months in a steel foundry was bad luck: nothing to steal that you could eat. Working on the wharf meant searches at the end of the day: 'Say you get caught pinching a bag of beans, they'd belt the hell out of you with a bag of beans. So you always made sure you never got caught with a tin, because they'd belt the hell out of you with a tin.' Then the American bombing started. George was near Kyoto when a day after his birthday, 23 August 1945, their Japanese interpreter announced that the war was over: 'The English sang "God Save the King" . . . The Dutch sang their anthem. The Australians said "About bloody time!"'

The POWs of G and J Forces in Japan were evacuated to Manila on an American troopship: George remembered the 29 days he spent there, with access to a 24-hour kitchen: 'I was 9 stone 1 lb. when went into the Army and 9 stone 1 lb. when I got out.' He came to Sydney on the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable. In the next twelve months, he grew an inch and put on three stone: 'I'd just stopped growing [while a POW], that's what it was, just stopped growing. No tucker.' George took a while to readjust to a family and neighbourhood largely made up of women: 'And that's when I met my wife. I'd known her since she was 10 years old. When I went away I was 17, when I came home she was 17 and I was 22. All the humps and bumps were in the right places.' George married May in 1950: 'They said the marriage would never last but it did.' When interviewed in 1999, George was a widower with five children, ten grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. He passed away at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on 27 July 2011, and a service was held at Tobin Brothers' Chapel, Glenroy, on 3 August.

John Lack

Doug Ogden writes about George Tite

About sixteen years ago I first met George at the Annual Battalion Reunion. I was talking to someone and said 'Thanks guys'. George boomed in and said 'You American?' I answered 'No' and George then said, 'Well, speak Australian.' I thought he was a grumpy old coot. That was George's manner, and as I got to know him he wasn't at all grumpy.

Over the years I learned how reserved and genuine George was. When I asked George if he would mind being interviewed by a TV presenter George told me he was sick with worry as he thought he had little to offer and speaking publicly was for others. George was reluctant to speak of his service but he told me that as a young man he was left at a crossroad near Yong Peng when his mates were getting sent back to Singapore. George was directing traffic. He told me he had never experienced such fear, the dark, the jungle and any noise had him in a flap.

Over the years George and I had chats on the phone and when I visited in hospital towards the end George could manage a joke or two about his impending death. George was not afraid. It was sad, as it always is, when George died. I considered him a good friend, a decent man, a man who spoke his mind, and a man one could rely on. George right until he passed away was a great friend of the Battalion and all its members and their families.

Doug Ogden

Walter Andrew Sarkies (VX27723) 1923 – 2012

Walter Sarkies VX27723 (Pte), who served as a machine gunner with HQ Company (Carriers) and later with A Company, and was a POW with F Force ('Pond's Party') in Thailand, died in Melbourne on 17 June.

Walter was born on 2 February 1923 in Glenhuntly and spent his youth in Reservoir. In June 1940, aged 17, he enlisted in the 2nd AIF, and after basic training joined the 2/29th at Bonegilla. At 18 Wal was with the battalion at Segamat (Malaya). When the Japanese entered the war in December 1941, his unit was assigned to defend airfields and he experienced bombing at close range with only the protection of a shallow slit trench.

Too young to become a carrier driver, he was reassigned to A Company. As part of a small unit he went behind enemy lines to bomb bridges to slow the Japanese advance down the peninsula. After successfully destroying two bridges, the unit found its way back to allied lines, following creeks and avoiding the Japanese. He was wounded in action against advancing Japanese as the unit attempted to rejoin the main body of the 2/29th which had been sent north to Muar. Unable to break through, the commandos regrouped with British gunners. After his wound was dressed at a British aid post (RAP), he was sent on the last train south to the makeshift Australian field hospital at Jahore Baru before being evacuated to Singapore. He was in hospital in Singapore when the Allies surrendered. A few days later, with other wounded he marched to the Selarang Barracks, Changi. Wal's closest friends, Tommy Hall and Donny McCallum, had been killed at Muar.

As a POW in 1942, Wal was with work parties ordered to build the Japanese Bukit Timah Hill memorial, and on the Singapore wharves. Later he worked making timber supports for the network of tunnels constructed under Singapore. In April 1943, Walter was sent to Thailand with F Force (Pond's Party). Disembarking from the train at Bampong, the men were force-marched, always at night after days of labouring, 160 miles north to Konkoita camp where they began work on the Burma- Thailand railway. In poor health since being wounded in January 1942, Walter succumbed to severe illness after only three days and was sent to a 'hospital' camp ("a funny name to give it", he said) back at Bampong. Walter attributed his 'good luck' in this to Dr Roy Mills. His friend Geoff Forster died on the boat that took these desperately ill men away from 'the line'. Walter remained at Bampong camp for some months before returning to Changi, having rejoined the F Force survivors as they came south.

In Changi hospital Walter took up drawing, with paper and pencils supplied by his friend Frank Day who worked in the camp library. The Walter Sarkies Collection of 41 drawings of Changi life is held at the State Library of Victoria. Walter remembered the day of the Japanese surrender, and the early days of freedom in liberated Singapore. Interviewed in 2011, he remembered the sweet taste of ice cream after years of near starvation. He also remembered 'marvellous' days and nights on the Esperance Bay, which brought the 2/29th home. Walter was 23.

In 1947 Walter married Betty. He had a lifelong career with Shell. He and Betty travelled extensively, including business trips to Japan. In later years, Walter and Betty lived with their son Richard at Wallan. Brian Cleveland represented the Battalion at Wal's funeral, which was held at Fawkner Cemetery on Thursday 21 June.

Marguerita Stephens

[Marguerita, the daughter of 2/29th veteran Bob Stephens, interviewed Walter Sarkies for the Battalion Association in 2011.]

VX38008 Lt. Frank W Nankervis OAM - C Coy -2/29th Battalion AIF

It is with regret that we record the passing of our president Frank on the 6th April 08. He was a fine officer and well respected by his troops in Singapore, Malaya and Thailand. The 2/29th Association was formed in 1943 and has had only two presidents, Arthur Wimpole for 39 years, followed by Frank for 26 years. Over the years he has been a great leader understanding the needs of widows and members of the Battalion in general. He will be greatly missed by all.

Frank was to receive the Order of Australia Medal. "For service to the communities of Hurstbridge and Arthur's Creek through a range of veterans' welfare, municipal and service organisations." Frank's honour is being presented to his daughter Kate at Government House on the 11th September 2008.