1946 - In the lunch room of the Mail Exchange Building in Spencer Street ... 3 disconsolate men sat listening to others prattling on about the regimental and unit reunions they had been to during the ANZAC Day commemorations and the 3 are wondering where and how they could fit into that reunion business.
Two of those men were George Smith, former President and currently Secretary of our organisation, and Bruce (Tich) Marshall, editor and publisher of our periodic newsletter, called "Odds 'n Ends". The 3 were ex-RAAF aircrew who had served in the UK on various Royal Air Force squadrons and had no unit organisation as such in this country.
They continued to think about the situation and, in mid-1947, the first get-together was held in the home of George and Shirley Smith, who were recently married and living at Elsternwick. Nine guests were present and, between 1947 and 1953, four further meetings were held at different venues as the numbers grew to 32. Slowly, slowly they kept growing, until in the 1960s the number grew to over 500.
On 24 August 1954, 35 members got together and hammered out an Association with a Constitution. They included RAAF and Allied Air Force blokes who had served in the UK, Europe and the Middle East on units outside the control of the RAAF.
What to call the Association? Someone recalled that the Royal Air Force term for non-air force or other Service personnel was "odd-bodies". So the kindred spirits decided then and there to call themselves the Odd Bods.
First annual subscription levied in 1955 was 2/6d. Foremost among the organisers were 3 reverend gentlemen, all of whom had served during the war and were still serving as Chaplains in the RAAF. They urged the members to exist for more than just annual get-togethers and other minor social functions, pointing out that all were part of a community and that the Association should take a community part also.
Hence the support for:- (a) The Berry Street babies home, quaintly called in those days the Berry Street Foundling Home, where the Odd Bods provided financial support for equipment, outings for children and staff. Help from all members and their wives was readily forthcoming between 1955 and 1970, when the government changed its policy for Child and Family Care. But the Berry Street Board of Management thought highly of the Odd Bods, and the Association was bestowed with a Life Governorship in 1964.
(b) Financial support was provided to many and varied organisations, including Legacy, and the Birthright Organisation.
(c) Our own Welfare Sub-Committee was set up to provide support for widows and families of our earlier deceased members and working bees were arranged for painting jobs, repairing fences, tidying gardens, etc.
(d) And finally the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation, whose work in India at the Raphael Centre has been continuously supported by us from 1967 to this day. This work has now extended to support in Australia by way of making homes available for temporary residence for relatives visiting their family members in hospices and hospitals, mainly in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
Many will have heard of Leonard Cheshire, a wartime pilot who was awarded the Victoria Cross and who, after the war, became very religious, starting up homes all over the world (but principally in India) for the care of terminally sick patients unable to help themselves.
We have
a motto - "Pressing on Remembering" - and in the spirit of that motto
we have two main commemorative services each year:
(1) A V.E. Day commemoration at the Shrine. This is in remembrance of 8th May
1945, when the war in Europe ceased. First held here in 1956, it was originally
supported by other UK and Middle East organisations, but gradually and inevitably
they have fallen away. On that first occasion it was a very formal affair, with
government representatives, a march with a band from Princes Bridge to the Shrine
and the guest speaker was the Lord Mayor, Sir Frank Beaurepaire, (who spoke
for 20 minutes on the wonder of having Melbourne host the Olympic Games!).
(2) Battle of Britain Church Service. This was formerly held at St Paul's Church
Canterbury on the nearest Sunday to 15th September, to commemorate the victory
of "The Few" allied pilots, including Australians, who defeated the German air
armada over England in 1940. The service followed exactly the one prepared and
delivered in the Chapel of Heroes at Biggin Hill in England, one of the Battle
of Britain airfields so strongly involved at the time. In 2004, we made a decision
to join with the Royal Air Force Association in its commemoration service at
The Shrine, that takes place on the nearest Sunday to 15th September, as above.
Naturally there has always been an annual reunion and, for a long time, it has
been held on ANZAC Day, immediately after the march, currently with about 120
participants, the majority of them in their eighties.
Our banner, proudly displayed, was designed by the members and made up at the Repat General Hospital at Heidelberg by the head seamstress whose name regrettably has not been recorded, but we bless her for a wonderful job.
Her skill was volunteered by our member Les James, who was then Manager of the laundry. On the banner are, of course, our Battle Honours - Britain and Europe, North and South Atlantic, Mediterranean, Azores, Middle East, Bermuda, Iceland, North Africa, the different Royal Air Force Commands in which our members served - Bomber Command, Ferry, Training, Coastal, Fighter, Transport Commands, 2nd Tactical Air Force, Air-Sea Rescue, Special Air Service (Special Operations Executive) and the Commonwealth Air Forces that willingly and enthusiastically merged their members with the R.A.F. - Australian, New Zealand, South African, Canadian and Dutch. We have estimated that our members served in about 250 separate Air Force units spread around all those locations mentioned.
30,000 Australians joined the Empire Air Training Scheme. Nearly 10,000 of them did not return! The largest number of losses occurred of course in Bomber Command.
Badges and ties were also designed by the members and manufactured for us.
Birthday cards are sent to our wives and partners by volunteer Jean Smith, the wife of member Alisdair Smith.
In past years our members took part in several sporting activities, mainly golf and bowls, and scored successes in lots of tournaments around Melbourne and at RAAF bases.
It was pointed out by one of the Reverend gentlemen, Dave Beyer, our Inaugural President that, in forming the Association in 1954, the members were also sounding their own death knell. That was absolutely true, of course, and while we still have 290 current members the time will surely come ("and the wisest of us knows not how soon") when the Odd-Bods will cease to exist.
Nevertheless we are all proud of our history as an Association and of that wider part in a group of people of whom Winston Churchill said, "The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes to the British, Commonwealth and Allied Airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, turned the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion".
Comradeship endures. It is self-evident that such strong ties originated because of wars - the R.S.L. has existed all these years because of the hardships suffered in two world wars and several others of varying magnitude. Army, Navy and Air Force unit associations all over the country have members who bear lasting friendship with comrades who endured with them the horrors of the battles overseas, when Australians rushed to aid their Allies in overthrowing dictatorships and tyrannies everywhere.
Long may we continue to enjoy comradeship and friendship of that very special kind.