IT’S hard to imagine in modern times, a situation arising where our high profile sporting stars and celebrities would be asked to give up their chosen profession, volunteer for military service, and fight overseas in a world conflict. Yet that is exactly what happened some 75 years ago when many of Australia’s well known sportsmen and women volunteered alongside thousands of others for military service in a time of war.
By 1945, after almost six years of war, close to one million Australians had served in the military, among them were any well-known sportsmen of that era, and they served in all three branches of the military, Army, Navy and Air Force.
An indication of how many Rugby League players served in World War 2 is gained by looking at the makeup of the first post war 1948 Kangaroo tour. The tour included 28 players, 10 of whom had served in the Australian military between 1939-45.
This number included Royal Australian Air Force veterans Col Maxwell (captain of the touring squad), and player Fred De Belin (grandfather of NRL player Jack De Belin). Other high profile sportsmen such as cricketers Sir Donald Bradman and Keith Miller, rugby and rugby league international Ken Kearney and Olympic cyclist Sir Frank Bearaupeair also wore the RAAF uniform during World War 2.
Another sporting identity of that era who served in the RAAF was a well known rugby league player of the time, Bernard Peter Hickey. A name not so well known today, but if you were a rugby league fan in the 1930’s, you would have known who “Peter” Hickey was.
Peter - a gifted sportsman - was born in Toowoomba and as a teenager excelled at most sports, including rugby union while a student at Brisbane’s Nudgee College. After finishing school he returned to Toowoomba to work in the family hotel business and played rugby league. He was also a champion golfer.
IN 1934 he made the Toowoomba side in the old “Bulimba cup” competition and in 1935 was selected to play for Queensland. A tireless forward, his nickname “Handsome” perhaps belied his on field toughness. He continued to play Rugby league in Toowoomba until the end of 1935 then moved to Brisbane with his family to take up the “York” Hotel (now part of the Brisbane Myer centre), in Queen Street.
Joining the Brisbane Brothers club his on field success continued when he not only held his spot in the QLD side for the 1936 inter -state series with NSW and England but was then named in the Australian squad to play England in the second test of that years Ashes series. Peter was actually selected in three representative sides to play the 1936 Englishmen; Combined Brisbane, Queensland, and Australia. He had to be content with being a non playing reserve however, along with fellow Queensland and future Courier Mail s ports writer Jack Reardon.
The following year he again played for Queensland.
Then came war, in September 1939 and within a year 26 year old Peter Hickey had volunteered for service in the RAAF. Life in the RAAF during World War 2 was as dangerous a profession as any; training to become aircrew meant hundreds of hours of classroom and flying instruction and ultimately many served a long way from Australia, in the UK flying extremely dangerous missions over German occupied Europe. The casualty rate amongst RAAF aircrew flying over Europe in what became known as “Bomber Command” was horrendous, with a large percentage of crews injured, killed or taken prisoner.
Peter trained in Canada as part of the unique aircrew training scheme known as the “Empire Training Scheme”, where thousands of young men from Australia, NZ, South Africa, Canada, and what was then known as Rhodesia all trained to be air crew in Canada, to fly missions against Germany. The newspapers of the time followed the military careers, as much as they could of local sporting stars as a way of boosting morale at home and no doubt Peter’s exploits made news throughout the state at the time. After qualifying as a pilot, he was assigned to 458 squadron, RAAF based in Holmes-on-Spalding Moor air base in East Yorkshire, England in 1941.
The Queensland newspapers were full of news of Peter’s survival after his aircraft was shot down in December 1941; parachuting to safety over England on that occasion. Then on January 8, 1942, a Wellington bomber R1785, piloted by Flying Officer Peter Hickey, failed to return form a mission against German occupied naval bases near Cherbourg, France.
Before he left for the RAAF Peter advised his family of his wish to donate a Rugby league trophy, if something should happen to him. In 1944 the Hickey family honoured their son by setting up a trophy, known as the Peter Hickey Cup to be played between the first grade leaders at the end of the second round in the old Brisbane rugby league competition. This Cup was in existence until the mid 1950’s.
But what happened Peter and his crew? For decades no one knew anymore then the fact that they didn’t return that fateful night and were officially listed as “missing in action”.
It wasn’t until 2008 that their final fate came to be known and it was largely through the efforts of an Air France pilot by the name of Georges Denneboouy. Georges grew up on a farm near Cherbourg and decided to search for plane wreckage on his family farm, having grown up with stories of many aircraft being shot down in the area during the war. Georges and three other amateur historians, in time found the wreckage of a plane and they were eventually able to identify the plane and its crew when they found a ring with some initials engraved on it amongst the wreckage. The initials were of Wally Forgan, a South Australian member of Peter’s crew. By cross referencing the records they discovered the aircraft identification and names of the crew, including the pilot Peter Hickey.
It turns out that Peter and his crew, which included a New Zealander and an Englishmen, were buried by the Germans in a grave near Cherbourg, but back home none of the families could have known this in 1942 and they didn’t really know until 2008. A memorial was built on the site believed to the crash zone of the plane and to this day Peter and his crews graves are well looked after.
Who knows what Peter or the other members of his crew could have achieved in life if not for the war? Peter Hickey achieved much on the sporting field, ultimately gaining an Australian jersey, and he went on to serve his country in a time of war. He was truly part of the “Greatest Generation”.
Perhaps the words of Georges Denneboouy sum it up best.
"It is out of respect and gratitude to these young people who came from faraway lands we carried out this research. We hope that a memorial to the crew of R1785 and for the many pilots and crews, who perished in the air, and on the ground of Cotentin, will be raised to honour those who died to return our freedom to us."
The author would like to hear from any members of the Hickey family, if they happen to read this.
