Studio portrait of Sergeant Francisco J Salveron, United States Army, and his Australian de facto ...

Studio portrait of Sergeant Francisco J Salveron, United States Army, and his Australian de facto wife Clarissa Gray (nee Willmett). Prior to the Second World War Francisco Salveron worked as a purser on the SS Mactan, a liner which sailed between the Philippines and Australia. In February 1942 he was aboard the transport ship USS Don Isidro when it was sunk by Japanese aircraft near Bathurst Island. Francisco Salveron among those rescued by HMAS Warrnambool. Salveron was sent to the Brisbane Army Hospital for recovery. There he met General Douglas Macarthur and soon after was appointed his aide de camp, a position he held for the next three years, travelling with him to Australia and the southwest Pacific. In taking up the opportunity to serve with Macarthur, Salveron left behind his wife and two daughters in the Philippines. He knew nothing of their fate until after the war. Francisco and Clarissa met at the wharves at Brisbane where Clarissa had taken Lorraine, her daughter by a previous marriage, to look at the ships. A relationship developed between Clarissa and Francisco. Clarissa went by the surname Salveron and a daughter Frances, named after Francisco, was born in 1944 and a son, Douglas Javing, named after Douglas Macarthur, was born in 1945. Francisco was with Macarthur when he triumphantly waded ashore on Leyte Island on 20 October 1944 to retake the Philippines, and features in the iconic photographs taken of this event and the statues at the Leyte Landing Memorial in the Philippines. After the war Salveron returned to the Philippines to discover the fate of his Filippino family: his wife and children had survived. Douglas Macarthur arranged for Francisco and his family to migrate to the United States. In 1945 Salveron enlisted in the US Air Force and was assigned to General Dwight D Eisenhower's aircraft and later the aircraft of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State. Salveron received many military awards including the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and three Presidential Citations. Following his retirement in 1963 he led a very active public life in the United States. Francisco Salveron died in 1998 aged 88 and Clarissa Salveron in 1997 aged 93. Although his family in the United States were aware of his Australian family, Francisco had never known that his Australian son Douglas had been conscripted into National Service and was killed in action on 18 August 1966 in the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam, aged 21. (See P10631.001 for a photograph of Douglas Salveron.)