16th Australian Infantry Battalion (Cameron Highlanders Regiment)

Brief History

The 16th Battalion was originally raised in September 1914. It landed at Gallipoli the following year, and also saw service in France. The battalion was disbanded at the end of the war.

It was re-raised as a Citizen Military Force unit, and amalgamated with the 11th Battalion in 1930. A new 16th Battalion was raised in 1936 as the Cameron Highlanders of Western Australia, and mobilised for war service , gazette as an AIF battalion. During the early war years, it formed part of the garrison of Western Australia, before moving north to Darwin in 1943.

In late 1944, the 13th Brigade, of which it was part, was reassigned to the 5th Division and subsequently took part in the New Britain Campaign from November 1944 until the end of the war. The campaign was limited to containing the larger Japanese force, and the battalion's involvement was focused primarily around undertaking long range patrols. Only limited combat occurred before the end of the war, and the battalion's casualties were light, amounting to 10 killed and 14 wounded. After undertaking garrison duties at Rabaul, the battalion returned to Australia in early 1946 and was disbanded in February at Puckapunyal.

Battalion personnel

• † Leslie John (Jock) Powell DFC April 1938- November 1940
• Colin Lindsay Ottaway DFC 16 Dec 1940 - 17 Jan 1942 - to RAAF
• † Vernon Harold Minchin 6 Mar 1941 - 30 Oct 1942 - to RAAF
• Douglas George Edgar Alexander
• Herbert Andrew Thomas Alexander
• Robert Neil Anderson
• Noel Aubrey Brown 19 Sep 1941 - 17 Apr 1944
• Keith James Buckingham
• Maxwell John Buckingham
• Raymond Ernest Buckingham
• Herbert Bunney
• Herbert Patrick Carter
• Richard Noel Craigie
• Roy William Davey
• Harold Frank Davy
• Cecil Sydney Fahey
• Jack Raymond Fuller
• Alfred James Gregory
• Thomas Robert Halliday
• John Milton Hand
• Maxwell Robert Joyner
• Charles Kenneth Neilson
• Thomas Donald Neilson
• Gordon Charles Page
• Oliver Benson Sharpe