ROLLASON Herbert (Bluey) VX55281 D Coy [Ch]

I am passing on the sad news of the death of Herbert Rollason VX55281 D Company. Enlisted 30.7.41

Known as Bluey, he and Bill Young 9(2/29th) were the two remaining survivors of Outram Rd Gaol

Bluey had a tough childhood. He was born in Maldon, Victoria and given to a nearby family at age 12months. This couple had no children and he was forced to work hard and was mistreated severely by his adoptive father, though he says he was well fed.

He took the name of his adoptive family and it was only later in life he found he had never been formally adopted nor had a birth certificate.

The couple had no other children and he became a bit of a loner. The family moved around quite a lot, as was often the case during the depression. At age thirteen he found himself in Bendigo and began working around the area on orchards and dairy farms.

Work was tough and so enlisting seemed a better option and at age eighteen, he joined the 2/29th battalion and was soon on the way to Malaya.

Bluey, not happy with all the chaos of Selarang Barracks decided he’d go through the wire. He met up with a couple of men and though they had a some narrow escapes, they eventually made a camp in the mangrove swamps. There they managed to survive, scrounging at night and relying on help from the Chinese and Malays

After six months their luck ran out when a local reported them to the Japanese. Taken to Kempetai headquarters Bluey was sentenced to eight years in the notorious Outram Rd Gaol.

Bluey said “the only good thing his adoptive father had done was toughen him up, enabling him to survive through those terrible years”.

I well remember Bluey as a child, he was a small wiry man with red hair, as his name suggests. He was a visitor to our home on occasions. Never one for formality, he wasn’t interested in the POW meetings or formalities, but he was a tireless worker. The Bendigo POW’ would collect and cut 10 ton of wood every year and then deliver it to all the POW widows in the area, Bluey was always to the fore when it came to these and other days when hard work was required.

He along with his wife Freda and their 5 children would attend the yearly Christmas picnics, cricket matches and other social functions that the men held over the years.

Diane one of his daughters has predeceased him.

Bluey was aged 93.

Marg Hogan, Vice President