Bruce Campbell Hope was the son of Winifred Ivy Pauline Hope who was a great-great-granddaughter of Thomas and Ann Stone. He was born in Kew, Victoria, Australia on 22 December 1917. Then in about 1920 he was adopted by Myles William Whinfield and his wife Euphemia Tilley (nee Kidd).
He enlisted in the A.I.F. in Melbourne on 16 April 1941 and joined the 3rd Forestry Company as he had the necessary experience, having worked as a “Sawmill Labourer”.
In 1939 the British Government had asked Australia to raise three companies of foresters to support the British Army in France and the first two were raised in 1940 as part of the Royal Australian Engineers. As they did not arrive in Britain until after the German Army invaded France they were diverted to northern England to assist with cutting timber to provide the material needed in the war effort: building bridges, pontoons, railway sleepers and so on.
The 3rd Forestry Company was formed in Melbourne early in 1941 with 150 men and some additional staff for a Forestry Group Headquarters which would be established in July 1941. Bruce sailed with the Company from Sydney on 4 June 1941 in the Themistocles and they arrived in Liverpool on 7 August.
The voyage had taken them to Wellington (New Zealand), the Panama Canal and Colon, Kingston in Jamaica, Halifax in Nova Scotia, and across the Atlantic in a convoy of 105 ships with a strong escort of naval vessels.
To begin with, they were sent to Chathill in Northumberland where they took over an existing sawmill which was being operated by the 1st Forestry Company which then moved to Lockerbie across the border in Dumfriesshire. Early in 1942 the 3rd Company also moved to Scotland, to Canonbie, about nine miles north-east of Gretna.
Unlike AIF infantry units the foresters had closer contact with the local folk. They were initially billeted in private homes, and later usually accommodated in camps located near villages. They were also granted local leave most days, which allowed them to drink in pubs after completing their work.
By the time the Forestry Group returned to Australia, 120 of its men had married British women and 40 children had been born. It is no surprise to find that on the 12 September 1943 Bruce married a local lass and Forestry Worker, 21 year old Jean Irving Wylie. However there was not much time for them to enjoy their new relationship as the Foresters embarked for Australia on the “Henry Ainsworth” on 21 September 1943.
Photo: Australian War Memorial
“They arrived in Boston U.S.A on 29 September 1943 and on 1 October the New Zealanders and Australians were given a ticker tape welcome on Broadway, New York, in the pouring rain.
“The Australians, led by Colonel Cole, carried arms with fixed bayonets. It is thought to be the only time the decree of the American Constitution that foreign troops cannot carry arms in an American city had been broken.
“Mayor La Guardia greeted them with an oration. One of the outstanding impressions of New York was the blaze of electric lights and neon’s after three years of British blackouts.
“The next day, they were on their way across the United States by train. They crossed seventeen States and eventually arrived at San Francisco to meet the ship taking them across the Pacific.”
They arrived back in Brisbane on 4 November 1943 and six months later on 22 May 1943 they left Townsville on the “Duntroon” to see service in New Guinea and arrived at Lae on 27 May.
“In the forests near Lae they did a remarkable bush job by erecting a sawmill, the largest in New Guinea, in less than six weeks. They equipped it with seven saw benches, taking logs up to 5 feet in diameter and giving an output of 100,000 feet of sawn timber a week, for the use of the Australian and American Forces.”
Reference: Pickering Brook Heritage Group
At the end of the War Bruce flew back from Lae to Brisbane, arriving on 1 June 1945 and was discharged at Royal Park in Melbourne on 2 November 1945. His home address at the time was 11 Treloar Crescent, Sunshine, Victoria but I don’t know when his wife, Jean arrived in Australia.
Bruce Campbell Whinfield was awarded the 1939/45 Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939/45 and Australia Service Medal.
