This story is reproduced here with the permission
of Kathy Sharpe and Dayle Latham, Senior
Lifestyle Magazine.
(Rufus Lucas has since passed away and was
buried, 22 June, 2012.)
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Molly (91) and Rufus Lucas (97). |
At 97 years of age, Rufus Lucas is the last
surviving member of a band of nine brothers
who all served in world War 11. Kathy Sharpe
met Rufus and his wife Molly at their Nowra
home.
Between 1940 and 1945, nine sons from one
farming family on the Far South coast of
NSW put down their tools and marched away
to fight in World War 11.
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Rufus Lucas the last of Bega’s nine “brothers in arms”. |
The extraordinary contribution of the Lucas
family in sending nine of its boys off to
the conflict is believed to be an Australian
record.
Bega’s Henry and Alice Lucas had a family
of 11 boys and four girls, and the last surviving
member of this brood of 15 is Rufus, who
today lives in Greenwell Gardens at Nowra
with his wife of 71 years, Molly.
Alice Lucas died when Rufus was 12, so was
spared the unimaginable anguish of having
nine sons away at war at the same time.
Rufus is now 97, and although his memory
has faded, Molly remembers well the worrying
times they lived through together.
She said that between 1941 and 1945 Bega
was like many country towns – virtually emptied
of men. Anyone who could do so had joined
the war effort.
“It’s just what you did. We all had to accept
it, all the wives and girlfriends who were
left behind,” Molly said.
She said the women were kept so busy doing
all the work of the men that they had little
time to feel sorry for themselves.
Rufus said he remembers meeting Molly Tasker
when he was 10 and she was four, but the
pair started courting in later years when
Molly was 16 and working at the Niagara Café
in Bega.
“Rufus used to box a lot in the show boxing
ring, and I would go down and watch him,”
she said.
They married at the Towamba church in 1941,
and Molly was seven months pregnant when
Rufus announced he was off to join his eight
brothers in the war effort.
“Things were getting really bad,” Molly said.
“There had been submarines in Eden harbour.
Rufus just had the feeling he should go.
There weren’t many men left by that stage,
anyone who could go, went.”
Molly said the brothers had limited contact
while they were away, with the nine scattered
from Darwin, Europe, the Middle East and
New Guinea.
Rufus was to serve on the Kokoda Track and
the Owen Stanley Ranges in New Guinea. Sadly,
Rufus was in New Guinea when his brother
Basil, known to the family as “Babe”, was
killed there. Another brother, Dudley, was
killed in Malaya and his body was never found.
Back home, like many other women across the
country, Molly was left to manage as best
she could.
“Everyone seemed to be in the same boat.
My own brother and father had gone. We just
had to tough it out. I was lucky I had my
mother to help me manage with the new baby,”
she said.
Molly also helped look after the youngest
Lucas brother, Chris, who was around 13 at
the time and only at home because he was
too young to join up.
Molly said beside sharing a strong sense
of duty, the family was very close perhaps
as a result of losing their mother so young.
Rufus was discharged just before the war
ended, at the request of a farmer from Pericoe
who needed him to help on his farm.
After the war most of the brothers continued
to live on the South Coast and raise their
families.
“They were always happy as long as they were
together, “ Molly said.
That family closeness has endured through
the generations, with Molly and Rufus moving
to Nowra in 1968 to be closer to two of their
four children who had moved to Sydney.
In 1968 they settled on 50 acres where the
Cambewarra winery now stands.
Their daughter, Gail, said from the original
Lucas brood of 15 children there are 97 grandchildren
just in her generation. After that, everyone
begins to lose count, though 500 people turned
up to the last family reunion at Cobargo.
Gail said the four children grew up thinking
it was normal to have so many uncles who
had fought in the war.
“We didn’t think much about it though because
Dad never wanted to talk about it,” she said.
“The brothers did have a strong sense of
duty but I think in those days most boys
thought is was all going to be an exciting
adventure.”
Molly said in recent years Rufus has begun
to bring up some of his experiences and memories
from the war years.
“It’s a hard thing to talk about,” Rufus
said.
And though Rufus is the last one remaining
from that extraordinary band of Bega brothers,
the memory of their contribution will live
on.
Seven of the nine brothers survived the war.
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Joseph Charles Lucas |
Ronald Edward Francis Lucas |
Basil Albert Lucas Basil was just 15 when he enlisted in June 1940. He served in Syria, Bardia and Tobruk before being killed by Japanese strafing at a field station on the Kokoda Track before he turned 18. |
Dudley Lucas Dudley, plagued by a collarbone injury sustained in childhood, had three attempts at enlisting before successfully using an alias to join up in 1941. He was killed seven months later in Malaya. |
William John Lucas |
Henry Leonard Lucas |
Cecil James Lucas |
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Lancelot Lawrence Lucas |
GREAT–GRANDSON PROUD TO MARCH FOR LANCE
Lancelot Lawrence Lucas suffered from an
unknown medical condition which saw him discharged
twice but by August 17, 1942 he was considered
fit for duty.
Like his brother Ronald 11 months earlier,
Lance was assigned to the ill-fated 8th Battalion.
While many of the 8th Battalion were sent
to Malaya and their death, Ron was in Darwin
when the Japanese continued their southward
charge and reached Australian shores.
The first bombs fell in an air raid on February
19, 1942 soon after Singapore had fallen.
About 240 Japanese planes attacked in two
separate raids, killing at least 243 people
and sinking eight ships in the first of 97
raids to strike Darwin.
This year, the 70th anniversary, the federal
government has declared February 19 Bombing
of Darwin Day.
Lance, who passed away in November, 1984
was awarded the Australia Service Medal,
the 1939 to 1945 Star and the War Medal but
tragically the medals and other memorabilia
were lost in the bush fires that ravaged
Bega Valley Shire in 1952.
Lance’s great grandson, Blake Young, carried
the replacement medals in Eden’s Anzac Day
march this year.