Remembrance Day 2025: They answered the call - the stories of CBA staff who served

Vernon Mitchell

Along with Governor (CEO) Sir Denison Miller, Vernon Fancourt Mitchell was one of the very first CBA staff members, joining the Melbourne office on 11 June 1912. A month later – on 15 July – the branch opened its doors for business.

Working through most of WW1, Mitchell joined the Australian Imperial Force as a 2^nd Class Air Mechanic with the Australian Flying Corps in March 1918.

Embarking for overseas service in England the following October, Mitchell joined the Australian Imperial Forces’ Administrative Headquarters where he was approved for detachment to the CBA branch in London for duty.  

But after falling dangerously ill with influenza, Mitchell returned to Australia and was discharged from the AIF in January 1920.

He resumed work at the Bank’s Sydney office and subsequently became editor of the internal magazine Bank Notes, which started life in WWI to connect staff at home and those on service abroad.

Arthur Stallwood

At the outbreak of WW1, Arthur Stallwood was working as a clerk at Ballarat branch, having joined CBA as one of the first staff members in June 1912.

He enlisted with the Australian Army Medical Corps in August 1914, serving with the 2nd Field Ambulance in Gallipoli and France. Later transferring to the Australian Army Pay Corps, he was medically discharged in July 1918 for chronic dysentery.

Stallwood returned to the Bank in November 1918 and subsequently became the Officer in Charge of the War Services Home Department in Melbourne helping to provide housing for returned soldiers.

By 1928, Stallwood was the Supervisor of the Note Issue Department, a role he held until his death 13 years later.

“When news of his passing became known an atmosphere of gloom pervaded our Branch, where he was held in very high esteem.”
- Staff magazine Bank Notes December 1941.

Brian Rudd and John Healy – “The Swimmers”

In the quiet corridors of CBA’s Sydney offices during the 1930s, two young men—Brian Richard Rudd and John Walter Healy—walked similar paths that would one day converge in a way no one could have foreseen.

Brian had joined the Bank in 1936. Having represented his school in swimming, he was known for his athleticism, a talent which mirrored that of John Healy, a staffer since 1928 and a familiar face at the Bank’s swimming carnivals.

In May 1940, Brian enlisted with the newly formed 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion, John with the 7th Division Cavalry Regiment. Both sailed from Sydney to Egypt in early 1941.

While stationed in Palestine and awaiting deployment, the pair were on authorised leave on 12 May 1941 when they were killed in a civilian car accident. Brian was just 21 and John, 29, their sacrifice no less profound.

William Hall and George Chandler

They were two CBA staffers who never worked together but became members of the same battalion and died within a day of each other in the same battle in WW2 – united in the defence of their country.

William Herbert Crampton Hall had joined the bank in 1926 and worked afar as field as Prahan, Cairns and Willoughby. George Alexander Chandler started seven years later, first in Sydney and then in Wagga Wagga.

Both men enlisted in June 1940, deploying with the Australian Army’s 2/19th Battalion to Malaya. Amid a desperate withdrawal during the battle of Maur in January 1942, Hall was killed in action while Chandler died his from wounds a day later.

The 2/19th battalion endured some of the most brutal conditions of the Malayan campaign, suffering the highest casualties of any Australian Army unit in the war.

Geoffrey Blackmore

By the time Geoffrey Livingstone Blackmore joined CBA in January 1940 at the age of 16, WW2 was well underway.

Enlisting with the Royal Australian Air Force in May 1942, Blackmore arrived in the UK the following March with the rank of Pilot Officer and then Flying Officer with No. 576 Squadron. Part of Royal Air Force Bomber Command, the squadron was equipped with the famous Lancaster heavy bomber.

In December that year, Blackmore and his crew conducted night air operations over Berlin. Their plane was presumed shot down and Blackmore reported missing along with his six colleagues, then presumed dead on 16 December 1943. He was just 20 years old. His body was never recovered.

Blackmore’s name is carved on the Runnymede Memorial in England and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as a solemn reminder of the servicemen who have no grave.