By KATH GANNAWAY
Strap: Award of a lifetime for Anzac
WHEN Lilydale boy Bill Phillips enlisted in the Second AIF in 1943, recognition by an organisation dedicated to war veterans was nowhere on his radar.
Bill, a veteran himself of two wars and a founding member of the Mount Evelyn RSL, was presented with Life Membership of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) on Tuesday, 16 September.
It’s fair enough to call him a boy; he was only 15 when he joined his father, Jim, in defence of his country in World War Two.
“My dad had enlisted and I just wanted to be in it,” he said, admitting that he had “might have lied” about his age to get in.
He served in New Guinea but was repatriated and then discharged when the military discovered his real age, then 17, after he came down with dengue fever.
He said age wasn’t an issue on the ground, where he was accepted as an equal by the other soldiers.
“I was pretty tough in those days,” he said.
“Some might have had a bit of an idea, but I could do what they could do so it was all good.”
He enlisted again in 1945 and at 18 became an infantry instructor serving for another three years after the war ended.
When the call went out for returned servicemen to serve in the Korean War in 1950, Bill was a mature 22-year-old and he answered the call again.
He said Korea was hard going and again illness saw him repatriated early.
The Life Membership, presented at Mercy Place Montrose aged-care where 86-year-old Bill is a resident, acknowledges his military service, but it is primarily recognition of his contribution to the RSL and to veterans and their families in the decades that followed.
Mount Evelyn RSL President, Roger Boness presented the Life Membership certificate at a gathering of Bill’s family, friends and fellow RSL members.
He said there was great respect in the RSL family for Bill, who he said was instrumental in setting up the Mount Evelyn Sub-Branch, but was also a driver behind looking after the welfare of veterans and their families.
He said when he and others were called to a local bank recently to open a long-forgotten safe deposit box, they found an official-looking brown envelope tied up with red ribbon.
“It was a deed to set up the Mount Evelyn RSL Welfare Account and Bill was one of two signatories on it,” he said.
“Welfare is the primary reason and responsibility of the Mount Evelyn RSL and that’s what Bill did for the veterans of Mount Evelyn and their families.”
He said the RSL was a national entity and Life Membership was an important award providing recognition and access to all sub-branches around Australia.
“We thank you for a job well done and very, very much deserved,” he said.
Of his lifetime of service, Bill said it was something he had just done – much like joining up at 15.
The Life Membership, he said, was a surprise, and an honour.
“I’m very proud to receive it,” he said.
