Courageous Digger embodied ANZAC spirit

From the mighty MCG to the jungles of New Guinea ... the football field to the battlefield ... that was the life journey of one of Australia’s most courageous sportsmen turned soldiers Norman Le Brun.

As we mark 25 April this year without public services and marches and without the traditional ANZAC Day football, it serves us well to reflect on the life and sacrifice of one of this nation’s bravest Diggers.

He played the game at the highest level before taking up coaching country clubs to make ends meet during The Great Depression.

His story belongs on the big screen.

Blockbusters have been made about less exciting people.

Le Brun’s tale would need no Hollywood embellishment.

It is truly the stuff of legends.

The grandson of a migrant from a group of islands off north west Africa, Le Brun carved a name for himself as one of the best footballers in Victoria followed by stints as a captain-coach in the Riverina district of New South Wales before doing his duty as a trooper in a cavalry commando squadron in World War II.

Sadly, Le Brun was taken too soon, killed in action when shot by a Japanese sniper, in 1944, in New Guinea during the fierce Aitape-Wewak campaign during the Pacific theatre of war.

Having twice been buried in foreign fields, he now lies in the Lae War Cemetery, established in the year of his death and which contains 2818 Commonwealth war graves.

Norman Stanley Le Brun was born at Richmond in Victoria on 22 April 1908, the second child of Francis Thomas Willement (Frank) Le Brun and his wife Maria (née Albress).

Norm’s half brother Arthur also served in World War II and also paid the supreme price, dying as a Prisoner of War in Borneo in 1945.

Times were tough post-World War I as our heroic troops, many broken or wounded, were repatriated home.

Finding work was difficult. Significant in the context of the Novel Coronavirus 2019 afflicting the nation now, the Spanish influenza of 1918 took a deadly toll on Australia’s health and economy, claiming 12,000 lives.

With even the most menial of jobs scarce, football ability proved a valuable asset. Norm Le Brun was playing with Richmond reserves in 1928 and supplementing meagre match payments (for wins only) with occasional bricklaying jobs when South Melbourne lured him to Lake Oval by offering senior selection.

He spent only one season with the Bloods but found it difficult to hold a regular place, making only three appearances.

Norm was not tall – 171 centimetres (5 feet 7 inches) – but was solidly built (weighing 76 kilograms or 12 stone) and renowned for his tenacity – a real goer.

He opted to try country football and played for Sandhurst in the Bendigo Football League in 1930. He had a stellar year, sharing the inaugural Michelsen Medal with four others including team-mate William Edward Cresswell “Micky” Crisp who was invited to Carlton the following season, later becoming a premiership player for the Old Dark Navy Blues and Victorian captain.

Sandhurst won the flag, its second of a record six in a row, then Le Brun returned to the VFL, lining up for Essendon where he spent two years and played 23 games – his most for any of the four Melbourne clubs he would represent in seniors.

Collingwood beckoned in 1933 and his two years with the Magpies yielded 19 games before a final VFL season with Carlton (five games) in 1935; taking his VFL tally to 50 games in which he kicked 31 goals.

Le Brun then coached in the bush from 1936 venturing to Ganmain for the 1940 South Western District Football League season, leading the Maroons to the flag in his final game of club football.

He enlisted at Caulfield on 26 February 1942 – a week after the bombing of Darwin – and served as a trooper in the crack 2/10 Cavalry Commando Squadron.

To keep fit in far northern Australia, Norm played in the services alongside former Collingwood team-mate, the great Albert Collier.

Norm soon sailed from Townsville on HMAS Katoomba to New Guinea. He would never see his homeland again.

Norm, 36, was killed in action on 15 November 1944 in a thick jungle setting where the going was heavy, the maps inadequate and there was an absence of tracks, so that the patrol was constantly bashing its way through bush.

At 4pm that day an enemy party was engaged in a fire fight, which lasted 15 minutes, in the course of which Norm was killed by a rifleman concealed among the roots of a large tree.

In the Aitape sector is the Le Brun feature, a steep hill on the Danmap River and simply called Le Brun, named after our little hero.

Norm Le Brun’s name was added to the Roll of Honour in the Australian War Memorial alongside the 39,654 other Australians who gave their lives in World War II so others might live.

It’s also painted on the honour board in the dressing room at the Ganmain ground – hallowed turf according to locals – where Norm’s leadership, courage and determination were on display on that memorable afternoon in 1940.

At Ganmain, in Melbourne and Papua New Guinea today – ANZAC Day – they won’t be commemorating the service and sacrifice of our fallen in the usual way yet the Gallipoli ideals of mateship, courage and respect – so valiantly shown by Norm Le Brun and many others – will be silently remembered and revered. 

Lest we forget.

Article first published in the Herald Sun, 24 April 2020.

Shane Manning