EVERYONE knows Inverloch’s Trevor Scott.
Apparently not! In the last edition of the Sentinel-Times we included a photo of Inverloch’s last surviving World War Two veteran, attending the Vietnam Veterans Day service at the Inverloch cenotaph on Long Tan Day, August 18, but called him “Kevin Walsh”… oops!
And boy, did the community let us know about it. That’s not Trevor Scott came back the deafening retort and rightly so. But there was an excuse of sorts.
Both Trevor Scott, 98, who saw service protecting Torokina Airfield on Bougainville Island towards the end of WWII, and vice president of the Wonthaggi RSL, Kevin Walsh, who recently received an RSL Veterans Legacy Award for his welfare work with veterans, were at the service.
We took a photo of both men and mixed them up.
But both are worthy of the community’s gratitude.
As well as attending the Vietnam Veterans Day on Sunday, August 18, Trevor said he also attended a service last Thursday, August 15 to mark the anniversary, 79 years ago, of ‘VP Day’ – Victory in the Pacific on August 15, 1945, when Japan accepted the Allied Nations' terms of surrender and Australia's Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, announced that the war was over.
“I was in Torokina Bougainville when we got the news that the war was over but we didn’t know whether to believe it or not,” said Trevor.
“I was there with the AirForce providing airfield protection. I was 19-years-old at the time.”
Now 98, Trevor turns 99 in December and is the last surviving World War Two veteran who’s a member of the Inverloch RSL.
Kevin Walsh lives at Cape Patterson, who after 20 years in the military, has continued to serve in a volunteer capacity, supporting veterans, and receiving an award for “continuing to inspire and to have a positive impact on the veterans’ community".
So, it’s Trevor Scott, not Kevin Walsh, but our community is all the better for the efforts of both men.
