Private Arthur John Scurry - 5/2103

 Private Arthur Scurry was born in Southern Cross, Western Australia in 1932. He was one of six children, with an older brother and four sisters. Scurry’s family spent most of his childhood living in the goldfields. During World War 2 when his father George Scurry enlisted, George gave his occupation as a railway employee and his wife’s address as Bayswater, Perth.   Perhaps the family stayed with relatives in Perth while George was on active service. 

 Scurry and his younger sister are mentioned coming home for the school holidays in the local newspaper, so had left the goldfields for at least some of their schooling.   The family were living in Bullfinch in 1949, when Mrs. Scurry died.   His father moved back to Perth after this loss, as Scurry was living in South Perth at the time he commenced his National Service in 1951.  

Scurry was working as a labourer prior to his National Service training and was in perfect health, (his medical history form shows his fitness was graded as A1).  He became somewhat of a poster boy for Army Recruiting during his National Service training - pictured in the West Australian and quoted as saying: 

Having almost finished my three months National Service training I have found that the open-air Army life is just what I’ve been looking for. The Army offers me more security that any job I had in civvy life and it means I’ll be doing something really worthwhile.  

Scurry, together with three West Australian friends from National Service, decided to then volunteer for service in Korea They travelled to Hiro in Japan in May 1952 for further training. Sadly, one of the friends, Private Maurice (Snowy) White from Bridgetown, drowned the day before embarking for Korea and is buried in the War cemetery in Yokohama.  The two other West Australians in this group, pictured below, were wounded in action in August and September of 1952 and were returned to Australia.  

Newspaper portrait of four WA soldiers prior to embarkation.
L-R 52109 Pte Kevin Watson, 52105 Pte Maurice White, 52103 Pt Arthur Scurry, 52101 Pte Norman Fury
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10318424

Scurry was also wounded in action in August 1952. Aftertreatment in Field Hospitals in Korea and subsequent surgery at a British hospital in Japan for a gunshot wound, he spent 38 days recovering before recommencing active service.    Winter had set in by December in Korea, and Scurry suffered from severe frost bite. The standard treatment for frost bite appeared being put on light duties along with advice to stop smoking. 

At the end of January Scurry was with the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR). During this time 3RAR was on the ‘Jamestown Line’, defending this defensive line just north of the 38th Parallel.  

On the night of the 24/25 January 1953 a ‘snatch’ patrol of 30 men was sent out to capture a Chinese prisoner. The patrol was broken into three groups.  The base group was ambushed on three sides by Chinese troops and involved in a lengthy fire fight, which inflicted heavy casualties.   Only three members of the base group managed to escape from the Chinese, with 15 servicemen missing in action. Scurry and Joseph Hodgkisson, another West Australian soldier, were among those captured.   

The next week Scurry was listed in the Australian news as Missing in Action. Three months later Scurry’s father told the Daily News, that he knew only that his son had been reported wounded and missing and that the family was still hopeful that he would be found safe.    Unfortunately, those hopes were not realized, and Scurry is one of the 43 Australian soldiers that went missing in Korea still unaccounted for. 


References

1. SCURRY GEORGE HENRY ARTHUR: NAA: B883, WX37596.

2.“Arthur and Hope Scurry are home from their respective schools visiting their parents Mr. and Mrs. George Scurry”. Personalities. The Norseman-Esperance News. 16 May 1947. p. 11. 

3. Family Notices. The West Australian. 4 December 1949: p.1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47667373

4. "Something Worthwhile!" The West Australian. 5 December 1951: p.14. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49003697

 5.  SCURRY, ARTHUR JOHN. 52103. NAA: K60, RKM34070.

6.  AWM85 Australian Army unit war diaries, Korea.  3RAR January 1953.

7. Group portrait of 11 members of A Company, 3RAR … https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1162317

 8. ‘Family Still Hopeful’. The Daily News. 18 April 1953. p.3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article266127389




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