Sergeant John Gollan

John Gollan was the Great Uncle I never got the chance to meet. He was the only brother of my paternal Grandmother, and died shortly wounds received in action in New Guinea in December 1942.

John was born in Buckendoon on the Richmond River in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales. He was from a proud pioneering farming family, born in 1907 to Walter and Alice Gollan. He had two older, and two younger sisters who grew up on the farm with him.

John was a school teacher and ex-student of the Lismore High School, and a graduate in Agricultural Science at the Sydney University. He was active in the Lismore Junior Farmers' Club, was honorary secretary of the Junior Farmers' Club Advisory Committee and was Club Supervisor. John Gollan entered many outstanding exhibits at various North Coast National Shows. He always took a prominent part in other activities of the Junior Farmer Club movement and agricultural education generally. He was a member of the North Coast Junior Farmer Clubs District Council. He was an early president of the Lismore Apex Club, and took a prominent part in the formation of the Grafton Apex Club. John was a keen sportsman, and on several occasions represented Lismore Tennis Club at Country Week carnivals in Sydney. He was also a Rugby football enthusiast. (Grafton Daily Examiner 23 Jan 1943).

John Gollan joined the AMF 41st Battalion in October 1939. He was later detached to various armoured regiments in Australia and on 3 Sep 1942 his rank of Sergeant was confirmed in the 2/6 Armoured Regiment. The 2nd/6th Australian Armoured Regiment was a regiment of the 1st Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division. On the 10 Nov 1942 he embarked from Townsville on the "Taroona" and disembarked at 'Fall River', New Guinea as part of B Squadron. He sent a letter from the ship to his parents describing how relatively comfortable life on the ship was , if only "for a short time''.

On 16th Dec 1942 he wrote a letter to his, soon to be 10 yr old, nephew Michael (my father), describing how much he was enjoying the coconuts, the high heat and humidity, and explaining the danger of malaria. He asked Michael to pass on his best Christmas wishes to the family at Buckendoon when he was visiting from Sydney. Less than two weeks later he was wounded in action.

"In September 1942, the regiment's 'A' Squadron was deployed to Port Moresby in New Guinea, making the 2/6th the first Australian armoured regiment to be deployed to an operational area in the Pacific theatre. Subsequently, the regimental headquarters and 'C' Squadron were also deployed to Port Moresby, while 'B' Squadron was deployed to Milne Bay in November 1942. During December 1942, 'B' and 'C' Squadrons were shipped to Buna on the north coast of Papua to help break the deadlock in the Battle of Buna-Gona. Although the lightly armoured Stuart tanks proved to be unsuited to jungle warfare and suffered heavy casualties, the regiment played an important role in the eventual Australian victory at Buna. In December, seven tanks were dispatched to take part in the fighting around Cape Endaiadere. Three Stuarts were lost on 18 December, while the other four were knocked out on 24 December when they were engaged by Japanese anti-aircraft artillery from point blank range. Reinforcements were brought up, though, and an attack was put in at Giropa Point on 29 December, although difficult terrain prevented a link up with the infantry." (The Buna Front: A Ghastly Nightmare- Jon Diamond, March 2003)

It was on the 29th December 1942, that the Stuart tank John Gollan was in, was hit by a Japanese bullet/shell. It didn't pierce the tank armour but it catapulted a bolt/rivet into his eye. He died two weeks later on 12th January 1943, from complications to the wound.

After three months of frontal assaults, since the Papuan terrain prevented envelopments with large forces, the Japanese base at Buna was in Allied hands on January 2, 1943.

I have two poignant contributions from my paternal grandfather, Rev Stanley Claughton. A war diary entry describes the personal pain of losing someone close. A pain that was being felt by so many families. The second is a letter from my Grandfather, written at an Army camp near Darwin, to my father Michael on his 10th birthday, shortly after John Gollan's death . The letter expresses his love, encourages him to work hard and live to the standards of his dead uncle, and warns of the terrible uncertainty of war.

A letter from my Grandmother, Jean Claughton to her husband Stan in early 1943 from her parents' home in Buckendoon illustrates the terrible sorrow and hardship endured with the loss of a brother/son. This was at a time that Jean, the mother of three young children, feared her husband was likely to be sent to the place her brother had just been killed.

John was dearly loved by his family and appears to have been universally liked by those who knew him. The raw statistics of war can't tell the story of such sad and tragic death.

David Claughton
3 April 2024