Private Mervyn John WESTLAKE
24 Sep 1918 – 3 May 1941
Mervyn John WESTLAKE was born 24th September 1918 to Lindsay Mervyn and Mavis Lina Westlake, at Strathalbyn hospital. He was one of four children. He was schooled at Inman Valley and Strathalbyn. Mervyn was called “Jack” by the family and friends. He won a number of awards for his care and raising of dairy cattle in the Strathalbyn area as a child.
Sadly the oldest WESTLAKE child, Una Mavis died of meningitis shortly before the family moved to Waikerie. Lindsay Norman WESTLAKE (Norm) was younger than Jack and enlisted and served in the Army later in the war attaining the rank of Warrant Officer 2. Kenneth Robert WESTLAKE was younger again but sadly died in Barmera Hospital after a bike racing accident at Cobdogla shortly after the war.
In 1937 the family moved to Waikerie, where Jack was a single man working as a labourer in the area for Mr HOWELL. Jack represented the town playing for the Waikerie Football Club and was a very accomplished cyclist also representing Waikerie.
On the 21st of June 1940, Jack enlisted in the 2nd Australian Infantry Force in Adelaide. After training, Jack was given Pre Embarkation leave ending on 31-10-40 and returned to Waikerie visiting family and friends with Private Alan RIEBE, a good mate also from Waikerie and with the 2/48th. They were feted at the Institute hall before they left.
On the 7th of November 1940, Jack left for overseas on “HMAT Strath Eden”, he was posted to the 2/48th Battalion. Jack arrived in the Middle East on 3/1/1941 in Palestine. He was taken onto battalion strength and very soon was in the thick of the fighting. Jack and Alan were both part of the famous “RATS OF TOBRUK”.
Jack was in D company, with a mortar platoon (a highly effective but always targeted section by the enemy). On the 18th of April, 1941, Jacks good mate, Alan REIBE, was killed in action, the second of the Waikerie enlisted to die in action in WWII.
On the 1st of May, 1941, in battle again, Jack was badly wounded with gunshot wounds in the right thigh, left leg and left arm. He was brought in to medical care but sadly on the 3rd of May, 1941, Mervyn WESTLAKE died of the severe wounds he had received.
A joint Memorial service was held for Jack and Alan in the Waikerie Methodist church and the Waikerie band played as Alan was a former member, the service was very well attended and mourners overflowed into another building where an amplifier was set up so they could hear the funeral. The loss of these fine young men was lamented.
Mervyn John ‘Jack’ WESTLAKE is interred in the Tobruk War Cemetery and is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial on the Roll of Honour.
Mervyn is also commemorated with a tree and plaque here in the WAIKERIE War Memorial Gardens.
