I am researching Lt Bonington L det SAS on behalf of his family. I am looking for any information of Bonington as sgt 2/1bn australian army or 52 CDO me or 50 Cdo ME sadly have not been able to get nominal roll for either of 50 cdo me or 52 CDO me. any help greatly appreciated. Go well paul
Welcome aboard Paul - I have asked that the moderators place this into a more suitable sub-forum so it doesn't get lost with the user intros. I presume that you mean this guy: Service Record Name - BONINGTON, CHARLES JOHN Service - Australian Army Service Number - NX7608 Date of Birth - 19 Feb 1910 Place of Birth - PORT BLAIR, INDIA Date of Enlistment - 3 Nov 1939 Locality on Enlistment - KINGS CROSS, NSW Place of Enlistment - PADDINGTON, NSW Next of Kin – BONINGTON, MONTAGUE Date of Discharge 19 Jul 1940 Rank - Sergeant Posting at Discharge - 2/1 AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BATTALION
The war diaries for 2/1 Bn are available to be read online at the AWM - as you have a date of discharge it should be easy to scroll through them up to that date to see if he is mentioned in any way. And his pers file has been scanned and loaded to the NAA site - only 7 pages long
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/42497355?searchTerm=BONINGTON&searchLimits=l-decade=194 AEGEAN "KINGDOM" (1946) The "uncrowned king" of Karpathos, the beautiful Dodecanese island of the Aegean, is an Australian officer, Captain Charles Bonington, of a parachute regiment, and now head of the British civil affairs administration in Karpathos. A Sydney man, Bonington was a Rhodes scholar and notable athlete. He joined the Australian army in the ranks, transferring to the British forces on special duties in the Middle East. He was badly wounded and captured in 1941 after a daring air-borne raid against enemy installations near Benghazi. After his escape from a German prisoner of war camp he went to Karpathos, where he is judge, jury, police and governor combined, working under the orders of the Civil Affairs headquarters in Rhodes. The inhabitants of the Dodecanese remain Grecophile despite years of Italian occupation, almost untouched by the chaotic political currents of Greece herself, they welcome British administration for the interim period before they return to Greek sovereignty. Though dominated by Turkey for three centuries before the Italians assumed control, the Dodecanesians have but one political slogan.
He certainly got around: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18059343?searchTerm=Charles BONINGTON&searchLimits=l-decade=194 1948 DESERT PRINCE Fifty thousand square miles of Libyan desert over which Australians fought is being administered by a former sergeant in the Second A.I.F. - now Major Charles Bonington, in pre-war days a Sydney newspaperman. His headquarters are in Agedabia, and his "subjects" are 40,000 tribesmen.