Arthur Bury, right, and Tom Price will remember friends lost this Anzac Day. 80009 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By VANESSA CHIRCOP
ARTHUR Bury and Tom Price barely speak about their World War II experiences, even their wives were left in the dark.
But once a year on Anzac Day the men allow themselves to remember.
Arthur, 90, signed up on 6 January 1942 when he was 20 years old and served in East Timor, New Guinea and Borneo.
Shipping off to Timor would see Arthur’s unit the first Australian troops to invade an enemy occupied country.
“It seems silly, doesn’t it?” he said, “But that’s a fact.”
“When you look back on it I suppose (it was scary), but there was nothing you could do about it, we couldn’t get off the island.”
For both men, who were born in Williamstown, shipping off would be their first time leaving Australian soil.
For Arthur, it would be his first time out of Victoria.
Tom, 92, was in the army militia before the war but joined the Air Force in WWII.
“I was on leave and I met my wife in Footscray, at a dance hall where the market is now,” he said.
“We corresponded when I went back and then eventually we had four children, 12 grandchildren and now seven great-grandchildren.”
Tom’s wife passed away in 1983.
Arthur, who was engaged before he left, married his sweetheart on his first leave from the army 12 months after setting off.
They were married for 65 years until his wife passed away five years ago.
Both men, who are among the last remaining WWII veterans at the Williamstown RSL, spent the weekend taking part in the RSL’s Anzac Day celebrations.
“It’s a beaut day,” Tom said.
Up until two years ago Arthur was still taking part in the march in the city at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance.
“Anyhow, there’s no one left to march with,” he said. Arthur is the last of two remaining veterans from his unit left in Victoria.
