In June 2004
Walter was asked to prepare a brief chronology of his life for fellow Odd Bod
and friend, Jack Elliott, who was giving a talk. What follows is taken from
Walters notes and includes his terminology and impressions.
Walter Alexander
Eacott
1. Born 28 August 1922 at Chingford, an
historic town on the outskirts of London, famed for its associations with Queen
Boadicea who fought the Romans there; for Queen Elizabeth 1 who had a hunting
lodge on the edge of Epping Forest (the lodge is still there); for Winston
Churchill who was its MP between wars 1 and 2.
2. Joined the Air Force Defence Cadet Corps,
(forerunner to the ATC) in 1938 and became very air-minded. When he was 18 he
volunteered for the RAF and joined in December 1940 to be trained as a pilot.
He got his wings in December 1941, became a night fighter pilot after OTU and
was posted to 219 Squadron on the English south coast near Chichester. Didn’t
last long; El Alamein was in the offing and at short notice he was sent with a
number of other expensively-trained night fighters to the Middle East (Egypt)
where they were remustered to day fighters after several months of kicking
their heels doing nothing!
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| Walter (middle) with a couple of pals. |
3. Walter was posted to 603 Squadron in
December 1942, flying Beaufighters on Coastal Command convoy escorts, desert
patrols, supporting the Sicilian and Italian invasions (all from the N. African
desert) then on Greek Island “armed rovers” until 10 November 1943, just at the
end of ops, when he was shot down in the Aegean Sea and became a PoW the next
day, 11 Nov.
4. Transferred to Germany, Walter was in
Stalag IVB for 3 months before exchanging ID with an Irish soldier, in order to
get out of the main camp into a working sub-camp in order to escape.
5. Post-war, Walter joined London’s
Metropolitan Police in 1950 (looking for excitement) and was promoted through
the ranks to Inspector in 1960. He became disenchanted and, in 1967, was
appointed to the RAAF as an Administrative Officer, came to Australia, and served
until 1979, retiring as a Squadron Leader.
6. He served in local government circles as
Director of the Western Region Commission (a Gough Whitlam/Tom Uren invention)
until final retirement in 1986.
7. Walter became “Citizen of the Year” in
Werribee 1992 for his service to the community.
8. In 1993 he was awarded the Order of
Australia Medal for services to youth and to the retired (Area Commissioner for
Scouts, Probation Officer, Probus, Freemasonry, RAAF Association, U3A etc.)
9. Walter joined the Odd Bods in 1983 and was
elected President in 2001. “Still my favourite association!” wrote Walter in
June 2004.
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