As Inverloch’s last surviving World War 2 veteran, Trevor Scott commands the utmost respect amongst fellow inhabitants of the idyllic Victorian seaside town.
So when Trevor’s 100th birthday neared late last year, old mates at the local RSL reached out to the club he’s supported for three quarters of a century to ensure the personal milestone was celebrated with aplomb.
Accordingly, a Carlton guernsey signed by Patrick Cripps and all members of the senior playing group was presented to Trevor on the day he blew out the candles (December 15) – and making the presentation of the garment (which carried the number 100 on its back and the name “TREVOR” prominently displayed beneath it) was none other than Club Legend David McKay, himself a regular at “The Loch” these days.
In becoming the recent recipient of that very special dark Navy Blue guernsey which he immediately donned after the handover, Trevor, a Carlton supporter since the days of The Great Depression, couldn’t have been more appreciative.
“I reckon this is a fantastic thing,” Trevor declared of the treasured item. “I don’t know if I’d fit into today’s Carlton line-up, but I’d at least look the part.
“For David to present the guernsey was also a big thrill. A number of people at the ceremony are Carlton people, so we all enjoyed David’s company.”
McKay, a four-time Carlton Premiership player, deemed it a privilege to hand the No.100 guernsey to Trevor.
“What a remarkable man Trevor is. He is a person you can genuinely look up to,” McKay said.
“It is of no surprise that he is so highly regarded within the ranks of the RSL. He is great company, we had a great chat and his memory for the club and love of it is longstanding.”
Born in the Gippsland dairy town of Leongatha, and one of nine Scott siblings, Trevor John Scott adopted Carlton as his team of choice at the time of The Great Depression back in 1932, when he used to lug his books to school barefoot. Back then, the likes of ‘Soapy’ Vallence, Jim Park (who later lost his life fighting the Japanese in New Guinea) and Alf Egan were chasing the leather at Princes Park, and these were Trevor’s heroes.
Why Carlton? “I had two older brothers, the eldest who barracked for Collingwood and the one next to me Richmond - and of course as brothers never agreed with eachother I told them ‘I’m going to barrack for Carlton’,” Trevor explained.
Trevor was around for the 1938 Grand Final, when Carlton, captained and coached by Brighton Diggins, prevailed against Collingwood.
When war was declared in September of the following year, Trevor’s two older brothers Vernon and Wallace duly enlisted. Trevor, then a boy of just 13, couldn’t wait to turn 18 – and in January 1944 the counter-hand at WA Purvis’s grocery store in Moe followed suit, courtesy of a reference supplied by the firm’s Managing Director George Purvis. As Purvis noted: “This is to certify that the bearer Trevor Scott has been in our employ for four years, as counter hand, at Mirboo North. During that period we have found him to be a reliable lad, good worker, and honest. We have no hesitation in recommending him for any similar position”.
Upon enlisting, Trevor trained to be an aircraft technician, completing all tests in Adelaide in December 1943. But in a wonderful article penned by Claire Hunter for the Australian War Memorial in 2022, Trevor talked of his keenness for conflict.
“I went to see our boss, and said, ‘What’s the quickest way to get out of this place and get up to the war?’ He said ‘re-muster as a guard – airfield protection’ – so I did,” Trevor said.
Four months later, Trevor jetted into Port Moresby before continuing on to guard planes at Torokina on Bougainville Island. At Torokina, there came a rude awakening by way of an unnerving noise in the wee hours.
“I was standing underneath this plane, and I was sure a bullet went between my head and the wing of the plane,” he recalled.
“I still don’t know what it was . . .
“I used to sleep all day and be on duty all night, guarding the airplanes and making sure that there were no Japanese infiltrators coming along, trying to blow the planes up.
“It was very lonely and I did get very frightened that night. You were surrounded by jungle and you didn’t know what was going on.”
In retrospect, Trevor believed wartime impacted more on his mother than anyone else.
“I had three uncles who served in the First World War and my mother’s only brother was killed at Ypres,” Trevor said.
“He was missing in action, but his body was never found, and it took months and months and months for his mother to be notified . . . he was declared Killed In Action, and his name’s on the Menin Gate [Memorial to the Missing] which I went to see [a few] years ago.
“Poor old Mum . . . I think the war affected my mother more than the three boys being away.”
By war’s end, Trevor understandably felt a great relief. He had survived and would soon be home with his family for Christmas.
“I was [home] probably four or five months after [my brothers],” Trevor said.
“I remember Mum met me down at the bus stop, and I said, ‘Mum, where’s all the crowd waiting for me to return home?’ And she said, ‘You’re about four months too late.’
“So I went home with Mum and after about two hours I said, ‘Where’s Dad?’ “He was building a fire tower out on Dickies Hill, so at about three o’clock I set off across the paddocks to see my old man . . . and one of my little sisters came up and gave me a big cuddle.”
Trevor was discharged from the air force after the war, and within a fortnight was back at Mr. Purvis’s general store. He later found employment for a gas and fuel company in Morwell before joining Peter’s Ice Cream for what would be a 28-year association.
Trevor and his late wife, Joan met in Maffra in 1948 and married the following year. They raised three children, and Trevor can lay claim to many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ninety-three years and 11 Carlton Premierships later - “a couple of which I saw in person” – Trevor’s loyalty to the club he loves remains steadfast, even if the incessant rule changes to today’s game stick in his craw.
As for the Carlton players, Trevor, the former Mirboo North footballer who once tried out at Geelong under Reg Hickey’s watch, ardently admires their athleticism – and when when asked to declare an all-time favourite player, this much-love wartime veteran simply replied: “If they’re wearing a Carlton jumper they’re all favourites”.
