Description
Title: The Embarrassing Australian – The Story of an Aboriginal Warrior
Author: Gordon, Harry
Condition: Very Good – Celotape stains on the inside of the front and rear covers, and the front and rear dust jacket flaps. Page 165 previously completely separated from book and now cellotaped back in. Minor brown stains in some parts of the book.
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1962
ISBN: N/A
Cover: Hard Cover with Dust Jacket – 172 pages
Comments: A tribute to Lieutenant Reginald Saunders, an Australian aboriginal who served in 1939-45 War and Korean War 1950-53. He was the first Aboriginal to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army.
Reginald Walter Saunders MBE (7 August 1920 – 2 March 1990) was the first Aboriginal commissioned officer in the Australian Army. Enlisting as a soldier in 1940, he served during World War II in North Africa, Greece and Crete before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea in 1944–45. After World War II Saunders was demobilised and returned to civilian life, however, he later served as a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) during the Korean War. He eventually left the Army in 1954 and later worked as a liaison officer in the Office of Aboriginal Affairs, and was appointed MBE for his services in 1971. He died in 1990 aged 69.
