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 3rd 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 2nd in command of 3RAR’s C Company. The land mine that killed them was American made and had been obtained by the communist forces when territory previously occupied by the Americans was overrun.

                                       Bren Gun Carrier in Korea, October 1950.  Photo by Philip Oliver Hobson. AWM 

The story of Sketchey and Hummerston’s deaths was reported extensively across the country. The news arrived in Collie just days after Sketchley’s father had sold the license for his hotel.  Mrs Sketchley had already moved up to Perth several days previously and as soon as Mr Sketchley was informed of his youngest son’s death, he left Collie to drive to Perth to be with his wife.

Sketchley is buried in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, Korea and his grave is next to that of Captain Hummerston.  They were originally buried in Daegu, close to their place of death, and reburied in UNMCK in May 1951.  Sketchley’s photo has been provided by his family for display at the UN Cemetery and is on display with several other photos of the Western Australian soldiers and airmen who died in the Korean war.

Detail from my photo taken at UNMCK, December 2022. 

Collie has not forgotten Sketchley’s life and untimely death.  There is still a beautifully maintained Soldier’s Park in the town featuring a War Memorial containing details of Collie servicemen who died while on active service.  Sketchley is the only Korean war casualty from the Collie area.  The local Collie council also dedicated a rose garden in Soldier’s Park to Sketchley in the late 1990s. Here is part of the Rose Garden Inscription and my photo of the Collie War Memorial.

In memory of 5-763 Private K. G. Sketchley
3rd Battalion R.A.R.

First Australian soldier killed at Songju-Waegwan, Korea
3rd October 1950 Aged 20 yrs

Private Sketchley enlisted in Collie

 

          
Collie War Memorial. My photo taken October 2022. 

References

Australian Army Unit War Diaries Korea AWM85 4/21. 3 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment

October 1950. https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1027576/document/5350456.PDF. Accessed 8 April 2023.


Bren Gun Carrier. Photo by Philip Oliver Hobson, October 1950. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C360633. Accessed 10 April 2023.


Burial Report for Kenneth George Sketchley. https://www.unmck.or.kr/eng/04_memory/?mcode=0504020000&mode=2&no=40&country=AUSTRALIA&l_name=sketchley&f_name=Kenneth&page=1. Accessed 10 April 2023.

Collie Man Killed. West Australian (Perth, WA:1879 - 1954), Thursday 5 October 1950, p 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47890389  Accessed via Trove 8 April 2023.

First Australian casualty of the Korean War: Kenneth John Hummerston. https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/617362. Accessed 8 April 2023.

Monuments Australia. https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/military/display/99876-private-ken-sketchley. Accessed 8 April 2023.

Nominal Roll of the Australian Veterans of the Korean War. https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/koreanWar. Accessed 10 April 2023.

Sketchley, Kenneth George.  https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/617502.  Accessed 8 April 2023

 

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