Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

02/08/1941

Date of Discharge

20/11/1945

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

15/11/1921

Place of Birth

Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Hargraves Crescent, Ainslie ACT

School(s) Attended

Ainslie Public School, Telopea Park School

Occupation

Public servant

Next of Kin

James Brack (father), Hargraves Crescent, Ainslie ACT

Service Number

NX41701 (N43180)

Final Rank

Staff Sergeant

Final Unit

101 Convalescent Depot, Australian Army Medical Corps

Honour Roll in 'The Beacon', the Magazine of Ainslie School, 1943

Brack arrived in Canberra as a six year old in 1927 and attended school at Ainslie and Telopea Park. He was a lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion militia before he enlisted in in 1941. He was attached to the General Base Depot when he was sent to Singapore in September 1941 where he joined the 2/19 Battalion and was shortly afterwards promoted to Staff Sergeant. He was reported as being wounded in action in July 1942 although he was soon listed as a prisoner of war captured in Malaya at the fall of Singapore. In April 1943 he was part of F Force which the Japanese sent to Thailand to work on the central section of the railway from Kanburi to Moulmein in Burma. His parents received a card from him in September 1943 stating that he was "very fit and was receiving good treatment" although he later said that death was an everyday occurrence and that "beatings were a daily routine". He praised the Chinese who proved "invaluable friends and often risked their lives to make the lot of the prisoners bearable". Brack returned to Australia in September 1945 and was included in a list of POWs welcomed home at the Lady Gowrie Services Hut in Manuka in 1945 and later at Government House.

Before the war Brack worked for the Customs Department and he was studying at university having won a Coronation scholarship. After the war he rejoined the public service and was sent to Geneva in 1947 as part of a trade delegation to the International Trade Conference, then spent two years in London as a post graduate studying trade issues. In 1974 he was appointed chief executive of Australian Consolidated Industries Ltd (ACI) and in 1981 became chairman of Telecom Australia. His father, James Brack, was commandant of the Volunteer Defence Corps in Canberra in World War 2. Brack died on 11 July 2005.

Description - light brown hair, blue eyes, cut over left eyebrow, Presbyterian.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Geoff Burkhardt, A Jubilee History of Ainslie School 1927-2002, Canberra 2002
AWM Prisoners of War and Missing in the Far East and South West Pacific Islands
Stand-to: Journal of the Australian Capital Territory Branch, RSSAILA, Jan. 1951 (p.18)
XNATMAP (Division of National Mapping) history web site (entry for Bert Hurren) - https://www.xnatmap.org/adnm/people/hurren/afhurren.htm (viewed 14/11/2018)
The Canberra Times - 25 January 1935, 14 July 1942, 23 July 1943, 27 September 1943, 6 October 1945, 12 December 1945, 31 December 1945, 12 July 2005
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883 (Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947)