Percival George Collins’ name appears twice on Wagga’s Victory Memorial Arch. Photo: Chris Roe.
As we commemorate Anzac Day this year we thought we’d look back on a couple of quirky curiosities involving diggers from the Riverina.
One has the rare distinction of being listed twice on Wagga’s Victory Memorial Arch while the other was described as Australia’s “shortest fighting man” and was accidentally called up for the Second World War.
Anzac Day is an important occasion for Australians and our Kiwi cousins as we mark the anniversary of the Allied landing at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli during World War I and recognise the service and sacrifice of our armed services.
Memorials take pride of place in every town and village across Australia, proudly listing the names of those who served. However, they don’t normally list them twice!
Percival George Collins was born in 1891 and was the son of the prominent Wagga politician EE Collins who served several times as mayor and later as a member of the NSW Legislative Council.
Young Percival Collins was quick to enlist just days after the outbreak of war on 19 August 1914 and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force.
He served in the Middle East and at Gallipoli where the difficult conditions took their toll and he contracted pneumonia and a painful case of pleurisy.
Along with hundreds of other wounded he was evacuated onto a hospital ship, sent home to Australia and medically discharged as unfit for service on 2 May 1915.
The 24-year-old’s health quickly improved and, after a brief spell working in his father’s produce store in Murrumburrah, it seems he was missing the action and decided to re-enlist under the restructured name George Percival Collins.
He served for a little over eight months with the 18th Battalion in Egypt before once again being discharged on medical grounds on 2 September 1916.
His dual enlistment under two names led to him being commemorated twice on Wagga’s Victory Memorial Arch as both GP Collins and PG Collins.
Unfortunately for Collins, it seems ill-health continued to plague him through life and he passed away at the age of 52 in 1944.
One Anzac signed up twice as PG Collins and later as GP Collins. Photo: Chris Roe.
Our second story involves Narrandera’s Phil Roberts who was living in Wagga when he was mistakenly called up for military service at the start of World War Two.
At just 4 feet 10 inches tall (147 cm) Roberts was one of the smallest diggers to serve in the Australian Imperial Force and was affectionately known as “Tich”.
A veteran of the 5th Battalion, he had served for three years on the Western Front and later became a skilled radio technician and engineer, building and operating advanced transmitters, and kept 2WG on the air in Wagga.
When war again broke out in 1939, the middle-aged veteran was somewhat surprised to be the first man in Wagga to be called up once again for service.
He was ordered to report immediately to the Rose Bay air base in Sydney and was given a grand farewell at Wagga Town Hall where a large crowd gathered and presented him with more than 500 gifts.
Upon arriving in Sydney, however, Tich Roberts discovered that the call-up was intended for another man with the same name, and he soon returned home to the Riverina to resume his work.
What became of the 500-plus presents remains a mystery.
Tich Roberts passed away in June 1943.
