Sharp eye on the military

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
YARRA Junction collector Alan Bennett says military history is more than a hobby to him, it’s almost an obsession.
The Croydon librarian is an encyclopedia of knowledge on military history with a memorabilia collection to match.
A small part of that collection has been on display at the Yarra Junction Library, including a railway spike from Hellfire Pass on the Burma Railway, a piece of a shot down German airplane, a victory bell and hundreds of old photos of young soldiers.
“A lot of photos and letters get thrown away because people can’t identify with them,” he said.
“I love the photos … you look at the faces, so young, and wonder if they came home.”
He said every piece of memorabilia had its own story.
“You can go into every household and there will be a piece of military history,” he said.
“Out of every 10 sets of medals, once it passes two generations, eight out of 10 will be given away.”
Mr Bennett served for five years in the Army Reserve until he was injured.
“My grandfather was a POW captured at Singapore. I traced his history and found he was taken to the Sandakan Japanese POW camp,” he said.
Although he said he hasn’t found any “skeletons in the closet”, he has helped others uncover a few.
Mr Bennett now runs amilitary history group from Croydon Library, as well as the“Aussie Books for Troops” program.
People donate books to him, which he packages up and sends to Australian troops in places like Afghanistan and East Timor.
“The troops rotate every six months or so and leave notes for the next lot to email me,” he said.
“I send extra parcels at Christmas, and found out they couldn’t get greeting cards in the Muslim countries to send home to family so we did a drive and asked customers to donate a pack.”
Mr Bennett was shocked and humbled when a Woori Yallock lady who attended one of his talks last month was so impressed with his work that she posted him a cheque for $500.
Mr Bennett will be sharing some of his tips and tricks on searching military history databases at Yarra Junction Library on Thursday 23 June from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
“For some families there are 80 pages of history sitting online but unless you know what you’re looking for you may never come across it,” he said.
Bookings are essential on 5967 1588.