Commando News issue 15 2019

A distinguished doctor with a strong social conscience
VX90284 (V56817) Dr Roland (Roly) Good
2/3rd Independent Company/Commando Squadron
8 October 1919 - 11 November 2018
Roly Good passed away on Remembrance
Day at the age of 99. His son Ian said, “11th
of the 11th – a fitting date for Dad. He went
peacefully.”
Roly was a strong young man, and played a lot of
sport. As teenagers Roly and a good friend, Barry
Dexter (later 2/6 Independent Coy), and Barry’s
brothers David (later 2/2 Independent Coy) and
Stephen rode from Warragul to Tidal River on fixedwheel
push-bikes (and along unsealed roads) – great
training for three future Commandos! In later years
he recalled he had no problems physically serving in
the 2/3rd, and most of his comrades coped remark -
ably well, considering the conditions they endured.
Roly served with the 2/3rd Commando Squadron
in New Guinea, and later in Borneo, as a medical
orderly. Roly joined the 2/3rd after its return to
Australia from New Caledonia, before it sailed to
Papua New Guinea in February 1943. Roly said, “We
had a charismatic leader in Major George Warfe; he
inspired us to do all sorts of things that unfortunately
are done in war.”
‘The 2/3rd patrolled deep into Japanese held
territory, setting ambushes and gathering intel -
ligence. They also made a number of attacks against
Japanese positions, in order to harass them to keep
them off balance and also defend the 3rd Division's
flanks. During its time in New Guinea, the 2/3rd
suffered heavy casualties. They were credited with
having killed 969 Japanese. Against this, the 2/3rd
2/3rd Independent Company in action during the Battle
for the Ridges outside Salamaua, July 1943. Medic Roly
Good, centre, tends to Pte Robbie Robbins, wounded
moments before in the shoulder and back. Picture: Damien
Parer. Australian War Memorial 127978.
Roly Good, left, and good friend and 2/3rd comrade
Ray Roberts place a wreath at the Tidal River Memorial,
Cairn in 2004.
suffered 65 killed, 119 wounded, and 226 men
evacuated for medical reasons.’ [1]
After a period in Queensland, “…we were sent off
to Borneo, which had nothing to do really with
winning the war – it just meant we lost a few men, the
Japanese lost a few more, and the only thing is we
did manage to save a few prisoners… and then the
atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima
and that was the end of the war”, Roly later said.
Roly always went out on patrols with the other
soldiers, and carried a pistol, because the Japanese
took no notice of the Red Cross – they hadn’t signed
the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners.
Later in the war, in Borneo, he said he probably went
out on more patrols than anybody else, because his
platoon commander said he must go with any group
that went out, and, Roly said, “There were numerous
small patrol groups, of about five or six, so I did a lot
of walking!”
Roly qualified as a doctor after the war. After years
of study and a number of locum positions, while a
COMMANDO NEWS ~ Edition 15 I 2019 53