RICHARDSON, Colin Horbury

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Notes
  5. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Army
Conflict
World War II (1939-1945)
Date of Enlistment
10/07/1942
Date of Discharge
06/03/1944
Place of Enlistment
Operational Station, Papua

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Date of Birth
07/08/1920
Place of Birth
Sydney NSW
Address (at enlistment)
Coranderrk Street, Reid ACT
Occupation
Public servant
Next of Kin
Horace Richardson (father), Coranderrk Street, Reid ACT

Unit and Rank Details

Service Number
NX141420
Final Rank
Lieutenant
Final Unit
3 Australian Infantry Battalion

Notes

Richardson was a member of the 3rd Battalion (militia) sent to New Guinea in 1942 to fight the Japanese on the Kokoda Track. The 3rd Battalion entered the track on 5 September 1942 and fought the Japanese at Ioribaiwa and Imita. Richardson was leading 10 Platoon, B Company when he was shot by a sniper at Templetons Crossing on 17 October 1942.

The doctor who treated him in the field managed to close the wound in his chest but upon rolling Richardson over found another, bigger wound which he closed with safety pins. Richardson was given the last rites and pronounced dead until one man noticed his eye open. Somehow Richardson survived and was eventually evacuated to Australia. His convalescence was complicated by a bout of pleurisy before his appointment was terminated in March 1944. Richardson returned to Canberra and lived to be 94 years of age. When he died on 4 May 2015 he was living in St Lucia, Queensland.

Description - height 6 feet 2.5 inches, weight 145 pounds, chest 32.5-37 inches, dark complexion, dark brown hair, brown eyes, scar on his left knee, Church of England.

Sources

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
Colin Kennedy, 'Port Moresby to Gona Beach. 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion 1942', 1992
Bill James, 'Field Guide to the Kokoda Track', 2006 (p.289)
Queanbeyan Age - 21 October 2002
The Canberra Times - 13 September 1943, 27 September 1943
Courier Mail (Brisbane) - 8 May 2015
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883 (Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947)

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