Last Rat of Tobruk dies, eyes turn to next generation

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Last Rat of Tobruk *****, eyes turn to next generation

Australia’s last Rat of Tobruk has ***** aged 102.

Tom Pritchard was involved in a key World War II battle where *********** soldiers worked with British and Indian troops to defend the Libyan port of Tobruk in 1941.

As ******* and Italian forces closed in, the allied forces successfully held the port and victory was declared soon after.

The Australians, known as the Rats of Tobruk by their enemies, embraced the nickname and it has stuck to this day.

Mr Pritchard, Australia’s last living link to the battle, ***** on Saturday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese honoured the veteran as “the last standing of an extraordinary group of Australians”.

“Those who knew Tom describe him as having all the characteristics for which the Rats of Tobruk were known,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“He was a larrikin, selfless to a fault and with a wicked sense of humour.

“The legacy of these great Australians lives on in all who have and continue to wear our nation’s uniform.”

Like many young men, Mr Pritchard joined the army in 1940 despite being underage and was assigned to an ambulance unit.

In October of that year, his unit arrived in Tobruk after travelling through Bombay, Palestine and Egypt.

During the months-long siege, Mr Pritchard would collect and transport the wounded to the hospital, sometimes balancing four or five stretchers for hours at a time as shells rained from above.

His brigade left Tobruk in August 1941 for Syria before Mr Pritchard returned to the Pacific to prepare for a potential war against Japan.

New Guinea continued to test his unit as roads proved impassable and the wounded had to be evacuated by water.

Mr Pritchard was stationed in different areas around the tropics before the war came to an end while he was in Borneo.

He married his sweetheart Gwen soon after and lived in different parts of Victoria.

Mr Pritchard was a selfless man who would be somewhat mortified at all the attention he received, Rats of Tobruk Association secretary Lachlan Gaylard said.

“Being the last Rat of Tobruk was not something he wanted, but there couldn’t be a more fitting person to do the job,” he told AAP.

“We’ve lost our last one and now it’s time for other generations to carry the torch.”

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