Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

11/09/1942

Date of Discharge

28/11/1945

Place of Enlistment

Emerald Hill NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

02/04/1922

Place of Birth

Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Rosebud, Victoria (previously Barton ACT)

School(s) Attended

Canberra High School

Occupation

Bar assistant

Next of Kin

John Bachli (father), Rosebud Hotel, Rosebud, Victoria

Service Number

VX107719

Final Rank

Corporal

Final Unit

135 Australian General Transport Company

Doug Bachli was a champion schoolboy swimmer and Australian Rules footballer being joint winner of the J.L. Williams medal at the 1936 national championships after his family moved to Canberra in 1935 when his father gained the lease to Brassey House in Barton. But it is as an amateur golfer that he is best known. He won the Canberra Cup at Royal Canberra in 1937 as a 14 year old and again the following year. He served with a transport company in northern Australia from 1944 until the end of the war. Bachli left Canberra in 1940 but won the ACT Open in 1946 and 1948 and the Victorian (1949, 1950, 1953), Queensland (1948) and several Australian Amateur championships. His most famous victory was in the 1954 British Amateur Championship. In 1958 he was part of the Australian amateur team which won the inaugural Eisenhower Cup at the Royal and Ancient golf club of St Andrew's. Bachli was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1996.  He died on 6 January 2000.

The Yarralumlan : Magazine of the Canberra High School, 1945, p.12
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
The Canberra Times - 15 November 1935, 11 February 1936
Royal Canberra Golf Club Jubilee History 1926-1976 (p.20)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883
http://www.sahof.org.au/