“Dad’s Army” was the topic selected by our Guest Speaker, Ron Banks, former Journalist and Arts Editor of The West here in WA. Ron has written a book bearing that title, and he focussed on the two World Wars, looking at them through the eyes of his father mostly. It proved to be quite a challenge for Ron due to the reticence of his forbears to talk about their experiences. Ron’s father joined the 2nd 16th Battalion in June 1940, and went through training at Northam. He was then posted to Syria via India, and whilst in Syria he was badly wounded by shrapnel. This led to a spell of six months in hospital in Egypt. Repatriation followed on the speedy hospital ship MS Oranje which provided the wounded with a magnificent daily menu! As an aside, this ship was eventually converted into a passenger cruise ship called Angelina Lauro in 1969, but in 1979 a fire broke out on board and she was declared a total loss. Ironically, she sank on the way to the scrapyard. Back in Perth, Ron’s dad decided to join the British Merchant Navy, and he faced a lot of danger during the latter years of the WWII, as the Navy was involved in transporting oil from New York to Liverpool. Ron then finished off his talk by having a discussion with those present about a range of related issues, such as who would be exempt from service in the 1940s – basically those over 25 years of age or those in an essential industry or service. Ron showed us a number of slides which underlined the difficulties and futility of war.