"Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Victor Theodore Smith
– 1st Soldier from the Illawarra to Die in the WW2 Years" – 9.4.2015
Scarborough Cemetery Lawrence Hargrave Drive
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen – thank you for attending today to commemorate Victor
Theodore Smith. I would like to acknowledge that we have here Mr Smith, older brother of Victor
Theodore Vic Smith, and Mrs Smith, widow of Vic’s younger brother, and also Vicki and Lawrence,
his niece and nephew. Plus, other family, friends and Veterans of the Northern Illawarra are here
today.
In these days we hear a lot of the Centenary of ANZAC in WW1, but it is not to be forgotten that we
are already in the 75th Anniversary Years of WW2, andnot to be forgotten, in the 50th Anniversary
Years of the Vietnam War Conflict period.
In 1939, after Australia declared war on Germany in early September, there was a great deal of
debate about mobilising the country. The memories of the conscription debates of 1916 – 1917
were still raw. The ensuing months saw the media full of headlines and stories of would we or
wouldn’t we have conscription. Opposition had not waned from twenty years earlier. Finally on
November 30 1939, it was announced that all young men who would be turning 21 would have to
register for defending our home soil, which included New Guinea in those days. Across the country
many registered in January 1940. Then the stories turned to how this process would be managed as
April 1940 approached, when the young men would enter Army Camps. Vic Smith, the nephew of
Ted Roach who had led the Dalfram Dispute activities, two years earlier in 1938, was one of those
young men. As President of the Black Diamond Heritage Centre, I was researching the stories of
those died in the WW2 years from the Illawarra, in order to help share their stories. I discovered
that Vic was the son of John George Smith, a Wombarra coal miner and his wife Blanche Florence
Smith nee Roach. They had married in 1915. Their names didn’t mean a great deal to me initially.
Until I saw that Lawrence Smith was his nephew. I had been at Thirroul School and Bulli High School
a couple of years behind Lawrence’s sister Vicki. Lawrence then shared with me that Blanche was
the sister of Ted Roach, that was a surprise.
And so in April 1940 Vic found himself in the 2/34th Battalion and at Liverpool, in the early days of
the compulsory military service of young men entering Army Camps. He would be destined to only
serve for a very short time, never given a chance to volunteer and serve overseas.
Victor Theodore Vic Smith, would become the first Illawarra soldier to die in the World War 2 years.
There would be over 300 such Illawarra people lost before the War was over in 1945. Later in 1940
there would be another three deaths by misadventure and one by illness, of Illawarra men who had
enlisted in WW2 – the first casualties on the battle field would not occur until 1941. And so many in
the South Pacific particularly, starting from 1942.
Vic was 20 years old. He was killed on the night of April 9 1940. He was on duty, serving his country,
riding motorcycle despatch back to Ingleburn Military Camp carrying messages, when he was killed
in an accident on Moorebank Road near Liverpool. Vic had collided with an unmarked roadworks
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barrier. His death was widely reported in NSW newspapers at the time. The South Coast Times of
April 19 1940 reported :
“The tragic death of a local boy, Victor Smith, Wombarra, late of the 34th. Battalion,
Liverpool, came as a great shock to all who knew him. The fatality was recorded in last
week's issue of this journal.”
What could have been so important that it required two motorcycle despatch riders with pillion
passengers on the evening of April 9 1940? Well it was on the day of the German invasion of Norway
in WW2, and Vic’s family have often wondered if he was carrying messages relating to this attack.
We will never know what was in the despatch messages Vic was carrying. Last year I happened to
visit Oslo, the Capital of Norway and accidentally wandered into the Museum commemorating
Norway’s heroic resistance and struggle in the WW2 years. It is indeed a moving place to visit as you
would expect.
But we do know that Vic was a local boy from Denmark St Wombarra, worked at the steelworks, was
an old boy of Wollongong Junior Technical School. He was remembered by his friends as a keen
sportsman and great personality. They spoke of his keen sense of humour and bright disposition ,
which won him great admiration from young and old. And of course by his sorrowing family. They
still remember him.
Vic never got to serve overseas. Perhaps he may have done so later in the World War 2 Years, as
many young men like him would do. Nevertheless, they gave him a Military funeral which
was largely attended, by lads from all walks of life, proved the esteem in which he was held. He was
buried and commemorated with an official Commonwealth War Graves entry – here at Scarborough
Cemetery – Row M Plot 23. Thank you for attending today and ensuring that he is not forgotten..
Lest We Forget
Kerrie Anne Christian President - Black Diamond Heritage Centre
Reference :

The Biz Fairfield April 11 1940.: SMITH.—April 9 1940 at Liverpool, Victor beloved
son of Mr and Mrs John Smith, of Denmark Street Wombarra, aged 20 years Result
of accident.

Commonwealth War Grave Entry - http://www.cwgc.org/find-wardead/casualty/2246303/SMITH,%20VICTOR%20THEODORE
Black Diamond Heritage Centre ( http://blackdiamondheritagecentrebulli.wordpress.com/about/)
12.2 – Rev 0
Issued 2014