Welcomed in Sydney
We were taken down to Australia on the Australian aircraft carrier, HMAS Ruler. In Sydney, the people knew who we were by virtue of how we were dressed, because they didn’t have the full RAF uniform, so I had to wear the Royal Australian Air Force blue uniform with the ‘Glengarry’ cap[i]. We had to have Great Britain flashes put on our shoulders. And of course the taxi drivers wouldn’t take money from us and the dance people would let us into dances for nothing and gave us a wonderful, wonderful time.
They couldn’t send us home the way we were, as we came out of the POW camp. I was only 6 stone 7 when I was released and I was one of the fitter ones – I was on me feet, anyway. But a lot of the lads were in a bad way, they were just put on hospital ships, so they didn’t dare send us home at 6 stone 7. So they put us on board this aircraft carrier, as I say, fed us on the best food and we could have as much as we liked. In Australia, it was the same; so by the time we got home in December, we’d fattened out, because as soon as we started eating meat and fat and carbohydrates we just sort of all swelled up and we all looked fit and healthy, which of course we weren’t.
[i] The glengarry bonnet is a traditional Scots cap. It is also adapted as a side cap is a foldable military cap with straight sides and a creased or hollow crown sloping to the back where it is parted. All ranks of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) are entitled to wear the garrison cap
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