SOMERTON MAN: CLOSING IN... THE SHORT LIST, CODE NAME 'ALIEN'. UPDATED: 27th BATTALION TARTAN

CLOSING IN...

The foreshore at Glenelg, dated 1955, a little bit out in terms of the Somerton Man time frame but I would suggest that it didn't look that different in 1948.

The building you see is the Glenelg Town Hall, normally the seat of local Government and a place for social gatherings.

But between the years of 1946 and at least 1953, this building had another purpose, it played host to a most interesting organisation. But, before we discuss that, here's a map showing the precise location:

(The map is interactive)
JETTY ROAD TAKES PROMINENCE, AGAIN

The address shown is not really of importance, I have used the tools with Google maps to demonstrate just how close this building is to Jetty Road, it was just 1 minute away.

Followers of this blog and others will know the significance of the location, this was where a 'City businessman' said that he had parked his car at the time at which he believed the copy of the Rubaiyat was dropped into it. But who really was the 'City Businessman' and why was he so important that his name was never to be revealed? More on that later.

According to newspaper accounts at the time, this occurred between 1 and 2 weeks prior to the finding of the body of the Somerton Man on the nearby Somerton Beach. In fact, the time was close to the holding of the Parafield Airshow.

The location itself is connected to the Rubaiyat and its 'code' page, by default, it was also connected to the torn piece and then, of course, we have a connection to the now infamous copy of the Rubaiyat said to have been given to Alf Boxall by the nurse Jessica Harkness. It contained a handwritten copy of Verse 70 of the book and it was signed by someone calling themselves 'Jestyn'.

A NATIONAL ORGANISATION

And the organisation to which the Town Hall played host? The RSL. Thanks to Clive, we have dated it's use by the sub-branch to between 15th March 1946 and 3rd July 1953 according to The Advertiser, it may well have had that use before and after those dates. Our concern here is to tie its use specifically to 1948.

THE COMMUNIST THREAT

Let's fast forward now, another 18 months go past and the tensions within Australia were rising as the communist threat loomed large. This thought-provoking short article appeared in the Melbourne Herald on 25th July 1949:

The relevant phrase? 'More than 2000 RSL sub-branches throughout Australia...'
How many men would that be? 100000 or perhaps more? Getting down to brass tacks, in Australia at that time, the RSL was not only an organisation with significant numbers, but it was also the ONLY organisation who could have pulled that many followers together.

THE SHORT LIST, THE BUSINESSMAN

Just who was the 'City Businessman' who handed in the copy of the Rubaiyat to the Adelaide Police?

Whilst other names have been bandied around by others and by me, we are now at a point and in a position to make a much more educated guess. We have 3 names that I now put forward:

1. Sir Kenneth Agnew Wills, Brigadier, Australian Army a member of a well known and well connected local family and owned a large business in Adelaide. Sir Kenneth was a one time leader of the Allied Intelligence Bureau. He was also associated with Commander Long, RAN and was a known member of The Association

2. Colonel Alexander Pope, his details are within this post. His role was that of Manager of the South Australian branch of the RSL the Colonel was a known member of The Association.

3. Brigadier A.S. Blackburn, VC. from another extremely well known Adelaide family, the Brigadier appointed Colonel Pope to the role of manager. It is not known whether the Brigadier was a member of the Association.

THE SUITCASE TARTAN SCARF & THE KILT

A note, Colonel Alexander Pope was the C.O. of the 27th, Scottish Battalion whilst they served in PNG, 1945. The image shows the tartan kilt they wore, not dissimilar to the scarf found in the suitcase perhaps:

The scarf looks to have a more oblong shaped white pattern
but it also appears to be slightly folded?

CODE NAME 'ALIEN'

Another 12 months or so and this was the Government response to the threat:

“On the day immediately following the passing of the [Communist Party] Dissolution Act…Menzies ordered the establishment of a secret organization under military command, identified by the code name “Alien”, which would rally mainly civilian forces to counter the effects of possible industrial actions and demonstrations in protest against the banning legislation.…”

Dr Frank Cain's 'Terrorism and Intelligence' 

THE ASSOCIATION

These words from Sir Charles Court, ex-military officer and Premier of Western Australia talking of the 1940s:

“The Communist Party in Australia was strong, having built up tremendously during the war. A great number of men and women throughout Australia who had held positions in the armed forces and had the training, experience and understanding of what subversive elements meant, were very concerned that the Communist Party was seeking to undermine the elected government.

Sir Charles Court

These words from Sir Charles Court, ex-military officer and Premier of Western Australia talking about the 1940s:
' A group of us came together. Most of us were politically conservative, but we were just as determined to do what we could to protect Ben Chifley as the elected Prime Minister as we would have been had it been Menzies…' There were kindred groups in other States. We had clandestine meetings with people who were prepared to go to extreme lengths to defeat the Communists. We had reason to believe that Chifley knew what was going on and did nothing to stop our covert activities. In fact it was reported to us that he said, ‘You know I can’t condone it, but don’t stop it’… Not all the people concerned about Communism were from the forces. Some were senior in industry and commerce and hadn’t been able to go to the war. There were no paid positions. It was a watchdog type of organization to make it clear that if the Communists moved in any way to upset the elected government, there were plenty of people in Australia who would be prepared to go to the barricades to defend the right of the elected government to govern.”

Colonel Charles Court was also a member of The Association.

It is generally agreed by most historians of the 1940s that both Chifley and Menzies were painfully aware of the threat posed by communism and effectively turned a blind eye to the formation of an organisation known as 'THE ASSOCIATION, in 1947 but it may have been earlier.

In short, The Association was well underway in 1947 and by 1948 they had established themselves as a force to be reckoned with. From my readings, it seems to me that The Association had strong connections to the RSL, what other organisation in Australia could put together 100000 or more people in defence of the country.

Whilst we have previously named Colonel Wills as a known leader of ' The Association' in an ex-military man, trusted and well known in all the right circles in Adelaide, he was believed to have been a confidant of the Police Commissioner.


And the Colonel's Employment? He was appointed as manager of the Adelaide RSL, main branch in July 1946:

THE FINAL PIECES, HARDLY THREADBARE?

The pieces are falling into place, the book, the torn piece, Verse 70, The Association, the communist party, Alf Boxall, Jessica Harkness, and now Colonel Pope. A leading light in The Association, senior military man with huge connections nationally and in SA he was in a position of great influence within the SA RSL, whilst his appointment was for the Adelaide main branch he would have had every reason to visit the Glenelg sub-branch and quite possibly he did just that in November 1948.

All circumstantial? Yes, but with its connections at the highest level of Australian Politics and within the Military and Police services, plus the enormous power that goes hand in hand with such connections, this is truly compelling enough to pursue the line even deeper.

What did Jess say? 'It goes a lot higher than the local Police..'. It doesn't get much higher than what's been posted here.

Many thanks Clive, as usual your input and hard work has contributed greatly to yet another major step forward, or should that be 'Colonel' ?