AN INTERVIE W WITH JOHN LYALL
An interview with John Lyall
Year 11 student Conor Skinner
(11St) sat down for a chat with Old
Guildfordian John Lyall (He 32-36 and
38-39) to talk about his time in the
armed forces during World War II and his
recent French Legion of Honour Award.
I understand that you were in Henn’s
House and attended the School from
1932 through to 1939?
Yes that is true, except for the year 1937,
when I attended Hale for a year. My parents
came down from the North West and we
were living directly opposite Hale. I went
there for one year in 1937 and then returned
to Guildford Grammar School for 1938 and
1939.
Do you have any recollections of what
the School was like at that time?
I attended the Preparatory School from 19321936. In my final year there I was the Captain
of the Colour Party, which was like being a
Prefect in the Preparatory School. I was also
the Captain of Cricket and the Captain of
Football. Academically I was extremely good.
We had, in my particular class, two quite
brilliant fellows, Jim Baker (SG 31-41) and
Jeffrey Gibbings, known as Pop (Sc 31-41),
who were academically strong. I was about
third behind them.
I heard you were in the Senior School
when the Second World War broke out?
Yes, I was in Henn’s House in 1939. War
was declared in September and we took our
junior certificate in October/November. When
I returned home for the school holidays that
year, my father informed me that he was not
sending me back to school. I was to put on
the uniform, whether I liked it or not. I was
at home until December 1941, then I joined
the Air Force.
Was it always your plan to join the
armed forces?
No, it was my family’s intention that I would
finish my schooling at Guildford Grammar
School and go on to university. I had desires
to be a geologist, but that never came to
fruition. I knew I was going to end up in a
uniform anyway and I thought I had better
decide what I wanted to do, rather than
wait to be called up. As the story goes, a
friend and I came down from Kalgoorlie as
17 year old boys to join the navy, but were
told to go home, as we were too young. As
we were walking back up St Georges Terrace
we passed the RAAF Recruiting Office and
decided to try there. Two hours later we
both came out as air crew recruits.
12
Cynthia and John Lyall, married 70 years.
Where did you do the actual training
when you had joined up?
Firstly I was at RAAF Pearce, then I moved to
Ballarat in Victoria for six months and did my
wireless training. Next I was located in Sale,
Victoria, for my gunnery training, where I
received my half wing and then my Sergeant
stripes. After some leave, I returned to
Melbourne to the embarkation depot. They
properly kitted us up and we thought we
were going to Kenya or Rhodesia for further
training to fly in the Middle East. That wasn’t
to be. They put us on a ship, and 19 days
later we looked up and were sailing [