Someone to live up to

When the call to arms came in the Second World War, the young men of the department answered in droves from all over Queensland. Many went to Brisbane or one of the major provincial cities to join up, but some chose to sign up in more local regiments.

The 26th Infantry Battalion was drawn from the north and west of Queensland, and had the distinction of being the only battalion to have Victoria Cross (VC) winners as its commander and its second-in-command. Colonel Harry Murray had won his VC at Guidercourt in Flanders in 1917, while Major E.T. Towner had won his in the last days of the First World War in northern France.

A young man from the Richmond Courthouse joined up and was destined to rise through the ranks by the time the war came to an end. He was Jim Latchford, later to become J.C. Latchford, Chief Stipendiary Magistrate. His clerks knew him always as ’the Colonel’, because he ran his court like a regimental parade ground – perhaps something he had picked up during his years of military service with the 26th Infantry Battalion.