Colonel Wilfred Kent-Hughes

Colonel Wilfred Selwyn Kent-Hughes (VX26600), KBE, MVO, MC, MID, Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General of the AIF 8th Division. Kent-Hughes served as a member of the 7 Infantry Battalion in the First World War and participated in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was wounded on the peninsula but stayed in active service until discharged in 1919. He participated in the 1920 Summer Olympics in hurdling events. Kent-Hughes entered politics in 1927 and was a member of the Nationalist Party of Australia. He enlisted for the Second World War in June 1940 whilst still a serving member of parliament and was stationed in Malaya. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Kent-Hughes was interned in Changi but was later removed and sent to other camps around Asia. He was liberated in Manchuria by the Red Army in 1945. After the war, Kent-Hughes returned to politics and later became the chairman of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Committee and he was knighted in 1957.