A brother's pride
NIKOLAOS STAVROU
AT home in St Marys, Hubert Murphy remembers his brothers with great pride.
The youngest of 11 children nine boys and two girls , he tells a compelling story of eight siblings who served their country.
Brother John was a cadet patrol officer in New Guinea but when war broke out in 1939, he joined the army and was made a warrant officer due to his knowledge of the area and the locals.
"By the time he got out in '46 he was a captain in Australian Intelligence Bureau's M-Squad (they only took people from captain and above for that)," Hubert said.
Austin was a lieutenant in the army who served in the Middle East and New Guinea with the 9th Division.
Mervyn was a squadron leader with the RAF in England who ferried aircraft between the UK and the Middle East.
Kevin was also in the RAF. He was a navigator. He was part of the first squad that flew Hamdens to Russia and helped teach the Russians how to operate the aircraft.
Brothers Leo and Michael joined the 7th Division but different battalions, based in New Guinea, in 1941.
In 1946 brother Bevan became a trainee cadet officer in the Merchant Navy. He did his training in Balmoral, Queensland, and served with the Dutch KPM line.
Then there's Hubert.
"I was leading aircraftsman in the RAAF and served in Malay for 20 months from 1951-53," he says.
Brother Vince also wanted to enlist but was unable to because of a crook arm.
All his brothers returned home except for Kevin.
"All we got was a telegram saying he was missing in action presumed dead. We later heard his plane was lost over Norway," Hubert said.
He said even though the rest came home safely they were not the same brothers he remembered.
"The war made a difference to them. They came back totally different," Barry said.
"Mervyn and Austin never smoked or drank before but they were changed after the war.
"There was no counselling back in those days."
Clearly shaken by his brothers' transformation, Hubert wouldn't talk further about the changes war had wrought in them.
But brother John was another story.
"John passed his first year in medicine but because of the Depression he couldn't do his second year so he became a cadet patrol officer in New Guinea in 1936. He was very intelligent," Barry said.
"On a mission in New Guinea, he was captured by the Japanese.
"He was tortured and had a very rough time but it it didn't worry him. He was very logical."
Fluent in French and pidgin English, John learnt Japanese so he could understand what his captors were saying and negotiate with them.
He was made leader in the POW camp and would often sneak out at night to get food for the other soldiers.
When the war ended, John spent 12 months in hospital recovering.
But instead of a hero's welcome he was greeted with a court martial.
He was charged with treason, accused of breaking down under interrogation and revealing secret army locations to the Japanese.
(The army took the word of the camp's Japanese commandant when laying the charge.)
But John was found not guilty and was honourably exonerated.
In many ways, his reputation had already been tarnished.
Newspapers in Brisbane reported his "treason" as big news, yet his acquittal was buried inside the papers.
American POWs in the camp said John saved their life but John's fellow Australian soldiers still looked at him with distrust.
Barry said his eldest brother was a true hero and received a top citation from the Americans (the Blue Ribbon) for work he did with them in New Guinea.
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