Clout, Gordon Kenneth (Lieutenant, b.1918 - d.2006)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of NX47900 Lieutenant Gordon Kenneth Clout, 2/2nd Australian Ordnance Stores Company, Egypt, Palestine, 1941-1942.

The collection consists of an original handwritten diary, typed transcription, and ten handwritten letters. The diary opens with embarkation on the Queen Mary on Sunday 29 June 1941. Clout describes the month long voyage to the Middle East, with disembarkation at Suez port on Saturday 26 July. This date marks the last of Clout’s entries for about six months. The pages between disembarkation and the next set of written entries include three sketches; the first could be a drawing of Gordon’s wife Glenice, the next is an unfinished horse, and the third a woman’s figure. The written entries resume January 1942, and cover Clout’s departure from Suez, on the troopship RMS Mauretania. At the time of boarding, the destination was discrete; Clout’s entries speculate on the ship’s course, on Saturday 21 February 1942 he writes ‘Everyone’s hopes dashed when we altered course this morning. Now going in a northerly direction. Rangoon is now a possibility.’ Clout’s final entry is a week later, on Friday 27 February. Clout’s letters, also in the collection, fill in the diary’s gaps; we learn through a letter dated 4 April 1942, that Clout’s voyage on the Mauretania returned him to Australia: ‘You can’t realise how happy I am to be back in Australia … originally we were destined for a place where, had we landed, we would now all be prisoners. Unfortunately one of our ships did get there, so you can see how close we were …’ This is Clout’s final letter in the collection; there are ten letters, dating from embarkation on 6 July 1941. Nine of the letters are addressed ‘Dear Mum’, the other is to ‘Jack’. Clout’s family lived rurally, near the Upper Hunter region of NSW, and drought and agricultural observations are common themes in Clout’s letters home; on 1 August 1941 he writes ‘We have now reached our destination, and are camped well out in the Egyptian desert … when we disembarked we were brought out by motor lorries, the journey being through desert for the most part, but there was quite a lot of irrigation land on the way. The watering is done from canals … corn seems to be the main crop, the ploughing is done by a wooden plough drawn by either an ox, camel or ass …’

Although the collection spans to 1942, Clout continued to serve with the 2/2nd Australian Ordnance Stores Company until his discharge on 1 March 1946.