Tribute to Arthur Richards – 1922-2021

Tribute to Arthur Richards – 1922-2021

The life of recently deceased and revered Sorrento bowler Arthur Richards can best be described as remarkable.

For in reaching the age of 99, Arthur was able to accumulate a staggering list of achievements during the toughest of times during the 20th century which included the Great Depression and World War II. But during those troubled times and beyond, Arthur ploughed through and his contribution to a fascinating and diverse range of prominent ventures speaks volumes for his willpower and integrity.

Fast forwarding, from a Sorrento Bowling Club point of view, Arthur was pure gold. He was Club Secretary in 1997-98, President during 1999-2000, Chairman of Selectors two or three times, worked on Match committee, played in the top division as a Skip and was a qualified coach.

Born on 26 June 1922, Arthur grew up in difficult times like countless other kids, and during his primary school education rode a horse seven miles each way to the nearest school at Wedgiegarrup in the Wagin Shire. He finished his secondary school education in Bunbury and at the age of 20 was the sole teacher at Hyden Rock in the south-eastern wheat belt.

Even at that tender age, Arthur had a burning desire to be a fighter pilot but his parents insisted he forge a career before they would sign the papers to enable him to volunteer for the RAAF. Having met that criterion, Arthur learnt to fly Tiger Moths at Cunderdin, before get-

ting a lift on a troop ship to San Francisco and then London on the Queen Elizabeth.

There was no stopping him now but the stark reality was that Bomber pilots were far more in demand over Germany than those who wanted to fly the sportscar like Spitfires. And so, Arthur rose through the ranks, firstly as a pilot on the two engine Wellingtons and the four engine Stirlings before ending up in command of a mighty Lancaster Bomber – then the biggest aircraft in the world with a crew of seven brave souls.

He was posted to the 467 Squadron at Waddington in Lincolnshire and after getting half-way through his obligatory 30 bombing missions, set off for a raid on Koenigsberg. After a heavy hit, which engulfed the Lancaster’s port inner engine in flames, Arthur and his crew had to parachute to safety. He survived the plunge and melted into the countryside for a couple of weeks, after abandoning a plan to steal a boat and reach neutral Sweden, but was eventually captured and spent nine months in a POW camp near Berlin. He and the other 13,000 prisoners there eventually returned to their various homelands and Arthur made his girlfriend his wife.

The problem was that, as unlikely as it may seem, a lot of young pilots of the day had not yet obtained a license to drive a motor vehicle. When Arthur turned up at the Roe Street police station to rectify that situation, the desk sergeant noticed the wings on his battle jacket and asked, “What have you been flying?” “Lancaster Bombers out of England ,” Arthur replied. The policeman then asked, “Did you have any problem parking them?” To which Arthur casually replied, “No”.

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The sergeant then asked Arthur to drive a couple of hundred yards down the road and stop. It so happened the arrival point was outside a hotel. “Let’s go and have a couple of beers, I reckon you deserve them,” the sergeant said. A couple of hours later Arthur was in possession of a licence which enabled him to drive a car, a truck, a motorbike and a passenger-carrying bus.

Arthur went back to teaching, firstly at the Leederville Primary School and later as principal at Wyalkatchem Junior High School. Postings then included Mt Barker and Albany. In Albany, Arthur got onto the local council and for a period of nine months was the city’s acting mayor.

He loved to gamble at the casino and was often seen at the roulette tables. After retirement Arthur took a position as Chairman of the Great Southern Regional TAFE Committee before being approached by a Malaysian group of educators and businessmen to head up a secondary college in Perth, work which later took him to south-east Asia.

Arthur’s wartime trauma and the respect he had for his comrades never left him and he not only wrote a book called “Silk and Barbed Wire”, he became President of the Royal Airforce’s Ex-prisoner of War Association.

Arthur, like the rest of us, grew old but remained an active Skipper in Sorrento’s lower grades well into his 90’s. So, cheers old buddy. You certainly earned those couple of beers the admiring police sergeant bought you all those years ago.

–Jim Woodward and John Godfrey