C Dawes: Tribute to Pte Leon Dawes KIA Korea 26 July 1953
Posted on: Mon 22 Jul 2019
When 14 year old Clarrie Dawes stood on the deck of the small ship Coweamba in 1938, as it drew away from the jetty at Thevenard near Ceduna, he wasn’t to know that he would never see his young brother Leon again. Clarrie would go on to serve throughout the war torn regions of the South West Pacific during WW2. His brother Leon was just starting school. Today Clarrie sits in his home and reads from an old, yellowing newspaper article containing the poem written by 2 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment members after the death of their good mate, Leon John Ledger Dawes…. So Long Digger… He shouldn’t have died. The truce had been called. Such is war.
Interviewer Helen Meyer
Photo: Clarrie Dawes reading Leon’s poem 2019. Photo by Helen Meyer. Leon John Ledger Dawes provided by C Dawes and used with permission
