Private Kenneth Sketchley - 5/673
Private Kenneth Sketchley from Collie was one of the first casualties of the Korean War. His death made front page news across Australia at the time, and he is still remembered in Collie today. Kenneth Sketchley was born in Perth on 8 January 1930. His family moved to Collie to run the Colliefields Hotel in the mid-1940s. Sketchley enlisted in the army in Collie in about 1948. Sketchley spent several years in the Eastern States after enlistment. He was posted to Japan with the 3 rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) in the second half of 1950 to train for deployment in Korea. Sketchley arrived in Busan, Korea with 3RAR on 28 September 1950. Less than a week later, on 3 October 1950, Sketchley was driving an officer in a Bren Gun carrier vehicle when the vehicle ran over a land mine, and they became the first Australian casualties in Korea. The officer killed with him was Captain Hummerston, the 2 nd in command of 3RAR’s C Company. The land mine that killed th