Over the River There Lies My Way

contributed by Michael Hall

James Cecil Cotter was 40 years old but his age didn’t stop him from enlisting for service in World War II. Cec was too young to serve in the Great War but his older brother Frank did. They were grandsons of the legendary pioneer Garrett Cotter, after whom the Cotter River is named, and they lived on their father’s selection south of Tharwa on the Naas River, now known as Caloola Farm.

Frank Cotter arrived in France in October 1917 and served with a 2nd Division machine-gun company at Ypres, Albert, Villers-Bretonneux and Mont St. Quentin. By the time the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 he had been promoted to Sergeant and awarded the Military Medal.  However, late in November Cotter was admitted to a casualty clearing station with diptheria.  He had survived the fighting but disease would claim him.  He died on 7 December 1918 at 21 years of age.

What is remarkable about Cec Cotter’s enlistment in World War II is that in 1920 he was described as “being almost blind”. He lowered his age to 37 and somehow passed his medical, going on to serve with the 2/4 Field Park at Tobruk during the siege of 1941. He was discharged in 1944 and became the President of the Rats of Tobruk Association (New South Wales Branch) in 1952.

Each year in April, the Rats would commemorate the siege at the cenotaph in Martin Place and afterwards the president would lead a march. At his first ceremony as president, Cec admitted to the Association padre that he could no longer see and asked him to make sure he marched in a straight line. It worked. Nobody realised that they were following a blind man.