Grant, you have done a brilliant job in bringing together your research on Sparrow Force. Through your efforts I now know exactly the incident that brought about the demise of my Uncle Lance Corporal Max Page who died of war wounds on 24th Feb 1942. I note that you have interviewed his platoon sergeant, Sgt Henderson, at length and as he was with my uncle and also wounded at the same time as he was when Japanese bombed their own at the time of the Australian surrender. I would be keen to review his entire set of interviews if possible.
My half sister through marriage has an Uncle Peter Perrett who was a Commando in Timor. He appears in Parer's movie holding a safety razor and motioning as to shave off his beard. Peter is still mentally very alert I am told however time is taking a toll on him physically. I did not find any reference to him personally in your book but Lancer Force who reinforced the 2/2nd ind are mentioned in passing. If you would like to contact him I am sure that I can obtain contact information.
Response
G’Day Peter,
Thank you so much for your email about the two members of Sparrow Force.
I have several hours with Sol Henderson. Sol was a real character and you can see clips of his interviews on my Youtube site. I plan to release the full archive of my interviews as soon as I can.
Your photographs of the graves would be really appreciated. I will add those photographs to the shared stories page of the website. Please send the photographs as attachments to this email address.
I looked through the Men of Timor newsreel again and, sure enough, there was Peter. I never realised that the 2/4 personnel were in the clip.
I hope that we can keep in touch. I plan to tour Tasmania at some stage to share my research material.
Regards,
Grant McLachlan
