Armament School–Point Cook

When my Grandpa enrolled into the Royal Australian Air Force during WWII one of the first things he had to do was to attend armament training at Point Cook in Victoria. The above photo (as labelled at the bottom) is ‘Squad 1 – 9 Armourers’ Course’ and in the group there was a representative from each state.

Every time I look at this photo I’m amazed. My Grandpa, in tiny but absolutely perfect handwriting recorded the nickname of each individual as well as their service number and the state they came from. To provide further clarification he went one step further and up the top recorded each person’s initials and surname.

I don’t actually know the other people present in the photograph but I do know that a resource such as this is incredibly valuable to researchers and finding a photo labelled so correctly is even rarer.

I’ve since visited the World War II Nominal Roll website and have searched for each service number and recorded the full name of each individual in the photo. They are as follows:

Back (left to right)

Stanley Alfred Clarke (20242); Ronald Victor Barratt (my Grandpa – 29456); James Alexander Butt (23767); Edward Allen Baxter (20345); Kenneth James Campbell (30666); Charles Ewings (20244) and Edward Laurence Endres (23876).

Middle (left to right)

Howard Cordingley (28274); Maurice Ernest Augostin (30681); Frederick Oswald Ross Dobson (19541); Roy Hewitt Bradley (12460); Rudolph Becker (18585) and Raymond George Burgum (23837 – listed as A158).

Front (left to right)

Francis Emmet Callaghan (20494); Victor Ronald Egginton (20243); Norman Geoffrey Cannon (20346); William Leslie Dyer (26380); John Edwin Evans (20347); William Charles Bradshaw (29344) and Norman Henry Burrows (23838).

Hopefully the above photo will be useful for someone who is also doing research; especially if they happen to be searching for one of the men listed.