Keith Hudson is on the right.

Service Number: 12 Rank: 1st Air Mechanic Enlistment Unit: Flying Corps Transferred Unit: Not known or not applicable Date of Enlistment: 16 February 1915 Enlistment Age: 22 years 11 months Fate of person: Returned to Australia

Biographical Details

Keith took his own life on 2 April 1928. Today we would have recognised the severe strain that the war had placed upon him and dealt with it accordingly. Keith had been baptised at Holy Trinity and educated at Launceston Church Grammar School. He served an apprenticeship as a mechanic with G.R. Jacksons and on enlistment in February 1915 he joined the fledgling Australian Flying Corps as an officer. He embarked from Melbourne on 10 April 1915 and joined his unit at Basra, Iraq. He was taken prisoner at Kut (July 1916) and interned for the remainder of the war in Turkey where he suffered appalling privations so that when he was repatriated in 1919 he was emaciated, suffering from malaria, diphtheria, enteritis and sunstroke as well as a perforated ear drum. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1919.

Postcard sent by Keith Hudson from POW camp in Turkey requesting Red Cross Parcels.

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