Talk:31st Brigade (Australia)

Commander
G'day, Hawkeye, thanks for the information about the brigade commander (Lieutenant Colonel Albert Arnold Brackpool) per your edit here:. I had been looking for this for quite some time and have failed in my efforts to locate the name. I have added it in as a commented out sentence at this stage as I haven't yet been able to locate a ref for this. You don't by any chance have something suitable do you? Thanks again for taking a look at this one. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 23:00, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I found him in the War Diaries of the 1st and 2nd Divisions. cf 2nd Division GS Branch War Diary February-March 1942 AWM52 1/5/3-002 He assumes command of the 31st Infantry Brigade on 22 February 1942 on p. 4. (The "H" is a typo) I went to get his personnel file from NAA but it hasn't been digitised. (Well, his Second AIF record hasn't been; you can find his First AIF record here. For some reason the First and Second AIF records were not merged.) So I looked him up in my copy of the Gradation List of Officers (1946), Volume III, pp. 1366-1367. According to which he commanded the 55th/53rd Infantry Battalion from 15 December 1939 to 28 January 1942, the 31st Infantry Brigade from 1 March 1942 to 18 February 1943, and the 2nd Infantry Training Brigade from 19 February 1943 to 7 October 1943. He held the temporary rank of colonel from 1 March 1942 to 31 May 1942, brigadier from 1 June 1942 to 18 February 1943, and colonel again from 19 February 1943 to 21 May 1944. He was placed on the Reserve of Officers with the honorary rank of colonel on 22 May 1944.   Hawkeye7   (discuss)  23:51, 21 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Cheers, Hawkeye. I have added those refs and details to the article now. I should have thought about the divisional war diary, sorry. Hope you have a great weekend (what's left of it). Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 00:44, 22 September 2019 (UTC)