Colin Simper, from Clarendon in Adelaide, was a blacksmith's striker by trade and had been serving with a Militia unit since May 1937 but transferred to the AIF at the outbreak of war. He met Irene Bean at a dance held at Semaphore Beach, Adelaide on 13 April 1941. Before his posting to North Queensland with the 2/43th Battalion, Irene and Colin were married at short notice at her family home in Blackwood on 12 December 1941. A two-day honeymoon was granted to the newlyweds, on the condition Colin remain near a telephone. Colin was commissioned in the rank of lieutenant on 23 October 1943 and was transferred to the 2/48th Battalion in August 1944. In late April 1945 he embarked for service on Tarakan and was severely wounded on 7 June. He died of his wounds (aged 26) two days later and was buried at the Tarakan War Cemetery. From the time he headed north until his death he and Irene corresponded regularly and the AWM holds his letters from this period. He left behind his wife and two small children, Eleanor born in August 1943 and Douglas born December 1944. After the war, Irene sold the block of land at Clapham, and she and the two babies continued to live with her parents. Irene loved music, singing, theatre, drama, and dancing especially, she was also a gifted and trained florist, a trade she practiced all of her professional life. She married again to Ralph Bottroff and had two more children, Kathryn and Kenneth.