Earlier this year RSL member Daryl Martin wanted to formally acknowledge his uncle Michael McIvor Wilson from Balldale who was killed in World War 2.
“I came up with this idea to create an everlasting memory of Mac, a brother of my mother (Maisy Martin (nee Wilson), who sacrificed his life for the life we enjoy in Australia and ran it past the family,” Daryl, 74, told The Free Press.
“The family said that would be lovely and to see it on a wall in a prominent place like the Balldale Hotel.”
Daryl, and fellow RSL member and King’s Medal Mounting’s Sam King teamed together to create a framed photograph board of rear gunner Mac with his war mates and replicas of his medals.
Popularly known as ‘Mac’, Michael MacIvor Wilson was born in Corowa on 22/11/1923, was called to Arms on 2/1/43 and, sadly, was killed on 4/11/1944.
“Mac was interred at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany,” Daryl said.
“He grew up on the Wilson farm ‘Cluster Hills’ Balldale. He went to Corowa High school and was a high academic achiever, a leader in the school’s cricket, football and tennis teams.”
It was such a tragic ending to such a young life at just 21-years-of-age. “He was shot down on his final mission – he was already booked to come back to Australia,” Daryl said.