West Australians Killed in the Korean War

  Private Ronald Gordon was born in Collie on the day after Anzac Day in 1929 but moved to the Maylands/Bayswater area of Perth prior to 1952.   It has been difficult to find out much about Gordon’s life before he enlisted in the Korean Special Forces of the Australian Army and subsequently landed in Korea in March 1952.   He is another young West Australian soldier who went to war in a foreign nation and died there, leaving few records that have remained more than 70 years after his death. Gordon’s Korean War service file has been examined by the National Archives of Australia and a decision was made by them to keep it closed and not available for public access. This means details of his enlistment and subsequent service are not known, except for information that is available at the Australian War Memorial, the United Nations Memorial Cemetery of Korea and newspaper reports and personal notices of his death.   Gordon was married before leaving for Korea.   ...

  Pilot Officer Maxwell Colebrook was born in Perth in May 1926 and was shot down over Korea on Easter Sunday 1952.   He attended school at Kalamunda before becoming a pupil at Hale School from 1938-1940. Colebrook was an excellent golfer and tennis player as well as a footballer for Hale’s school team. Another of his hobbies was making models of aircraft. As Colebrook had red hair he was affectionately known as Bluey. [1] After leaving school, Colebrook studied at a Perth commercial college before taking a clerk’s job at a car dealership. In 1942 he joined the Air Training Corps as a cadet. The Air Training Corps had been formed the year before to train young men between 16 to 18 years old so they could successfully join the Royal Australian Air Force, (RAAF).   At the end of his two year’s training Colebrook was described by his unit commander as an Excellent Cadet. [2]     In 1944 Colebrook enlisted in the RAAF as a Leading Aircraftman.   After his ...

  As I have been researching the life of Private Jack (Digger) Richardson I am reminded how important it is to record the lives of the West Australians who died as a result of the Korean War. I have not yet been able to find a photo of Richardson, even after accessing his Korean War Service File at the National Archives in Perth.   Richardson was a child migrant to Western Australia and served in World War II as an ambulance driver and medical orderly. He reenlisted for service in Korea in August 1950 and was killed in action in February 1951.   He never married and his next of kin was a friend who probably started out as a work colleague. Richardson was born in Coventry, England in July 1923. Only his mother’s name was recorded on his birth registration. [1] He arrived in Fremantle as a 12-year-old in October 1935 on the Otranto, one of many children on the passenger list not travelling with immediate family. [2]   Richardson enlisted for WW2 in Moora but gave hi...

  Captain Bryan Taylor Luscombe is one of three Old Haleians, (past students at Hale School in Perth), who died in the Korean War. Hale School established a memorial grove for all ex-students who died in conflicts from the Boer War to this present day and these three West Australian pilots who were killed over Korea are remembered there. Luscombe was an army pilot, while one of his fellow Old Haleians, Richard Roslyn Sinclair was a navy pilot and the other, Maxwell Edwin Colebrook was a pilot in the Airforce. Luscombe’s father worked for the Bank of NSW which meant Luscombe attended schools in many towns in NSW, moving every few years, until the family moved to Perth in the early 1940s. Luscombe, who was known as Joe, attended Hale School from 1942 to 194.   At Hale he was a prefect in his final year and captain of their cricket team.   After leaving school Luscombe entered the Royal Military College in Duntroon. [1]   After graduating from Duntroon, he was one of ...

  The telegram was delivered in February 1953 to the younger Mrs. Halley, who was staying with her husband’s parents, at the Rectory alongside Saint Barnabas’ Anglican Church in Leederville.  It told of her still new husband’s presumed death in faraway Korea on 11 February. John Beverley Halley was shot down by enemy fire after flying 77 armed reconnaissance mission over Korea. He was posthumously awarded a commission and mentioned in dispatches.    John Beverley Halley was the eldest child of Rev. Kenneth Beverley Halley, the minister at St Barnabas’ Church in Leederville for 18 years. Halley completed his schooling in Geraldton, prior to the family moving to Leederville. Halley wanted to be a pilot from his teen years.   He enlisted in the Air Training Corp in 1942 as a 16-year-old, applying to join the aircrew as opposed to the groundcrew. [1]   One of his hobbies was flying models. (He also played Australian Rules football and cricket, swam, and enjoy...