Eric Augustas Feldt OBE (1899 - 1968)

Born 3 Jan 1899 in Cardwell, Queensland (Australia)

Ancestors

Husband of Nancy Lynette (Echlin) Feldt — married 10 Jan 1933 in Queensland, Australia

Died 12 Mar 1968 at age 69 in New Farm, Queensland, Australia

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• Visit : VWMA Virtual Memorial Eric Augustas Feldt
  
• AWM portrait of Commander Eric Feldt, OBE by Norman Carter (1957 )
  

Biography

Eric Feldt OBE is Notable.

Eric Feldt OBE was born in the Colony of Queensland (1859-1900)

Eric Augustas Feldt, naval officer and colonial official, was born on 3 January 1899 in Cardwell, a small coastal town and rural locality on the mainland behind the northern point of Hinchinbrook Island, North Queensland (Australia), 55 kilometres north of Ingham. He was the sixth and youngest surviving child of Swedish-born parents Peter Feldt, a cane farmer, and Augusta Blixt. ^[1] His only brother passed away in 1906-07. Educated locally and (in 1912) at Brisbane Grammar School, Eric won selection as the sole Queenslander for the 1913 entry of cadets into the Royal Australian Naval College, Osborne House, Geelong, Victoria (subsequently at Jervis Bay, Federal Capital Territory).

Royal Australian Navy

Eric Feldt OBE is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Royal Australian Navy 1917-1922
HMS Canada; HMS Victory; HMAS Swordsman; HMAS Melbourne

He was chief cadet-captain and gained colours for Rugby Union and athletics before graduating as Midshipman in January 1917. Sent to England, in the first week of 1917 Peter joined the crew of the dreadnought HMS Canada. His adventurous spirit was not impressed when the Canada 'parked' with the British Grand Feet at Scapa Flow, in Scotland's Orkney Islands. In October 1918 he was posted to HMS Victory and in March 1919 to HMAS Swordsman, and promoted to Sub Lieutenant. He was visited in London by his parents, enjoying their first vacation in many years and first time back to Sweden in some forty years.

He eventually made his way back to Australia as a passenger aboard the Orsova, docking in Fremantle, Western Australia a few days before Christmas 1920, having been promoted to Lieutenant in February 1920. In January 1921 he transferred to the cruiser, HMAS Melbourne. On the Melbourne, Peter visited several South Pacific ports, including Tulagi, Port Vila, Noumea; 'falling in love' with the tropical Melanesian islands. Seeing little future for international travel in the severely reduced RAN, he resigned his commission on 30 October 1922 and was placed on the Retired List.

Territory of New Guinea public service

On 15 February 1923 Peter became a clerk in the public service of the mandated Territory of New Guinea; one of the German territories captured at the beginning of the first World War. By the following year he was a patrol officer. Rising to district officer, he served in different parts of the Territory.

In St Andrew's Church of England (now Anglican Church), South Brisbane, on 10 January 1933 Peter married Nancy Echlin, a journalist. ^[2][3][4] The couple were to remain childless.

Appointed acting warden of Morobe Goldfields on 12 November 1935 (confirmed April 1936), Peter lived at Wau and administered the mining ordinance as the Territory's chief warden. A staff of inspectors, geologists and surveyors assisted him; the giant Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd was one of the companies under his jurisdiction.

Allied Intelligence Bureau

Eric transferred from the Naval Reserve List to the Emergency List as a Lieutenant Commander in April 1939, as war once more looked imminent. Four months later the director of naval intelligence offered him the post of staff officer (intelligence), Port Moresby. Eric's's assignment was to activate and extend the coastwatching screen across the north-eastern approaches to Australia which would warn of hostile incursions by sea or air. Having accepted, he was mobilised on 8 September and arrived in Port Moresby that month. Travelling by air, sea and on foot, he visited key sites in Papua, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides, meeting coastwatchers and bringing officials and civilian planters into the service. Through his magnificent efforts, by mid-1941 his network comprised 100 Coastwatchers strategically placed along a 4,000 kilometre arc stretching from New Guinea to the New Hebrides! He had placed additional 'teleradio' sets in the Solomons (eight), Bougainville (two), New Guinea Highlands (one) and Guadalcanal (three). He stressed that his Coastwatchers were to be passive observers; therefore, no weapons handling, combat or tactical training was conducted. Their code word was 'Ferdinand', named from the Disney bull who preferred to sit under a tree and smell the flowers jthan fight.

Eric was appointed supervising intelligence officer, North Eastern Area, in May 1941 and transferred to Townsville, Queensland, with naval intelligence officers in Port Moresby in Papua, Rabaul in New Guinea (they were still separate Australian territories), Tulagi in the Solomon Islands and Vila in the New Hebrides. When the Japanese entered the war in December, the coastwatchers showed their worth by transmitting warnings of air-raids to defenders in Rabaul—before its capture in January 1942—and then to those in Port Moresby. After the Americans invaded Guadalcanal in August, coastwatchers alerted them to the approach of Japanese aircraft from Rabaul and Kavieng, New Ireland, enabling American planes to be in position to outfight the faster Zeros. From early 1942 the majority of his coastwatchers were operating in enemy territory.

The stress and strain of the job began to affect Eric's health. While visiting Guadalcanal in March 1943, he suffered a coronary thrombosis. After recovering, he was stationed in Brisbane and carried out his duties with the Allied Intelligence Bureau from there. He had been promoted acting Commander in July 1942, but the RAN reduced him to his substantive rank in August 1943. In February 1945 he was appointed naval officer-in-charge, Torokina, Bougainville, and in May regained the rank of acting Commander. Returning to Brisbane in June, he was demobilised on 29 September, Japan having surrendered unconditionally the previous month.

Eric had been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), gazetted in both London and Canberra in January 1944; his only reward. The investiture was made by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, at Government House Brisbane on 13 December 1944; Eric and Nancy then living at 4 Bellevue Court, Bonney Avenue, Clayfield, in Brisbane's northern suburbs. ^[5][6]

Brisbane

Although still aged in his late 40s, Eric retired from the New Guinea administration and continued to live in Clayfield with Nancy, on a pension. In 1946 he published The Coast Watchers, the definitive story of the service. ^[7] That year he was also secretary of the United Service Club.

The couple later 'retired' to New Farm, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, on the Brisbane River.

He unveiled the Honour Plaque on the Coastwatchers' Memorial Light, at the entrance to Madang Harbour, Kalibobo, New Guinea (now Papua New Guinea).