Aboriginal soldiers in WW2

Editor's note

Private Clarrie Combo grew up at Kinchela Aboriginal Boys’ Training Home near Kempsey, in New South Wales. At Kinchela, boys were called by numbers rather than names, their identities stripped away. Still, as Kristyn Harman writes, Clarrie signed up to fight in World War Two, one of around 3000 Indigenous Australians to do so.

While serving overseas, Clarrie exchanged mail with a Mrs F. C. Brown from Loxton, South Australia — a white woman moved to write to him after seeing an advertisement calling for volunteers to ‘adopt’ Aboriginal soldiers. His surviving letter to her is a fascinating insight into his war-time experiences.

Suzy Freeman-Greene

Section Editor: Arts + Culture

Top story

Yorta Yorta women and girls at the Cummeragunja Reserve in NSW with their knitting for soldiers serving in the second world war. Australian War Memorial: P01562.001

Clarrie Combo, Mrs Brown and Aboriginal soldiers in WW2

Kristyn Harman, University of Tasmania

During the second world war, a young Aboriginal soldier, Private Clarrie Combo from New South Wales, exchanged mail with Mrs F. C. Brown from Loxton, South Australia — a white woman whom he had never met…

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