Reg Saunders

Reginald Walter Saunders, MBE (7 August 1920 – 2 March 1990) was the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army.

He came from a military family, his forebears having served in the Boer War and the First World War.

Saunders was born near Purnim on the Aboriginal Reserve at Framlingham in western Victoria on 7 August 1920.

He was a member of the Gunditjmara people.

His father, Chris, was a veteran of the First World War, having served as a machine gunner in the Australian Imperial Force.

After this, his father moved to Lake Condah in Victoria, with Reg and his younger brother, Harry, born in 1922.

As their father undertook various labouring jobs, the two boys were raised largely by their grandmother.

Saunders attended the local mission school at Lake Condah, where he did well in maths, geometry and languages.

His father, meanwhile, taught Reg and Harry about the bush, and encouraged them to read Shakespeare and Australian literature.

After completing eight years of schooling, Saunders earned his merit certificate.

His formal education thus ended, he went to work at the age of 14 as a millhand in a sawmill.

Employers regularly withheld payments for Aboriginal labourers at this time, but Saunders refused to work unless he was paid his full entitlement, and his employer relented.

Saunders' mother died in 1924 from complications caused by pneumonia while giving birth to her third child, a girl who also died.

One of his uncles, William Reginald Rawlings, who was killed in action and after whom Saunders was named, had been awarded the Military Medal for service with the 29th Battalion in France.

Another ancestor, John Brook, fought with the Victorian Rifles and the Australian Commonwealth Horse in the Boer War.

He worked and furthered his education until 1937, when he went into business with his father and brother, operating a sawmill in Portland, Victoria; the sawmill was destroyed in a bushfire in 1939.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Saunders was determined to serve in the armed forces.

Patriotism and his family's history of soldiering both played a major part in his decision.

His father suggested that he wait six months; according to Reg, "They were talking about this war being all over in six months with the Maginot Line and all the other garbage that we were told ... But we waited six months and the duck season was over so there was no more shooting to do except go to war."

Enlisting as a soldier in 1940, he saw action during the Second World War in North Africa, Greece and Crete, before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea during 1944–1945.

Saunders enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 24 April 1940, joining up with friends he had made while playing Australian rules football.

The armed forces later adopted a policy to accept only persons "substantially of European origin or descent", but at the time Saunders encountered no barriers to his enlistment.

He recalled that his fellow soldiers "were not colour-conscious", and that during training in northern Queensland his white mates would sit alongside him in the "Aboriginal" section of movie theatres.

His natural leadership qualities gained him temporary promotions in quick succession: within six weeks of enlistment he was a lance corporal, and after three months he made sergeant.

After completing his training, Saunders was allocated to an infantry unit, the 2/7th Battalion, which was serving overseas in North Africa at the time.

Upon reaching the 2/7th, Saunders reverted to the rank of private.

His first experience of war came fighting the Italians around Benghazi.

In early April 1941, the 6th Division, to which the 2/7th belonged, was sent to Greece to help defend against a German invasion.

Following a series of withdrawals, the battalion was evacuated on 26 April, embarking upon the Costa Rica at Kalamata.

It was originally bound for Alexandria, but after the ship was attacked in Suda Bay by German aircraft and began to sink, the men of the 2/7th, including Saunders, were picked up by several British destroyers and disembarked on the island of Crete.

The 2/7th was subsequently allocated to the island's defending garrison.

Following the invasion of Crete in May 1941, the 2/7th Battalion was initially employed in a coastal defence role, before taking part in the fighting around Canea.

His younger brother Harry also joined the Army, and was killed in 1942 during the Kokoda Track campaign.

After the war, Saunders was demobilised and returned to civilian life.

He later served as a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) during the Korean War, where he fought at the Battle of Kapyong.

After this, it took part in a devastating bayonet charge at 42nd Street, along with the New Zealand Maori Battalion, which killed almost 300 Germans and briefly checked their advance.

It was during this battle that Saunders killed his first opponent: "... I saw a German soldier stand up in clear view about thirty yards [30 m] away. He was my first sure kill ... I can remember for a moment that it was just like shooting a kangaroo ... just as remote."

Saunders left the Army in 1954 and worked in the logging and metal industries, before joining the Office of Aboriginal Affairs (later the Department of Aboriginal Affairs) as a liaison officer in 1969.

In 1971, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his community service.

He died in 1990, aged 69.