Yesterday Today | Ray Smith was a World War Two Rat of Tobruk

By Alan McRae
January 13 2020 - 5:30am
HARD YAKKA: Bathurst World War Two veteran Raymond Henry Smith and his mates with men on the latrine detail.
HARD YAKKA: Bathurst World War Two veteran Raymond Henry Smith and his mates with men on the latrine detail.

THIS week's photo is of Raymond Henry Smith and his mates doing picket duty. They are posing with the two men on the latrine detail - an unwanted job in any army. These troops were in the Northern Territory acclimatising and retraining to later serve in New Guinea after serving in North Africa, where the men ended up as the Rats of Tobruk.

Raymond, known to most as Ray, was born in Bathurst on November 14, 1914. He was educated at Bathurst Public School. Ray met the woman who would become his wife when she worked in the catering room at the Bathurst Railway Station. He enlisted in Paddington on June 12, 1940, listing Ruby Smith as his next of kin. He was assigned to 2/3 Australian Pioneer Battalion.

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