The most revered Company Commander of the now famous 39 Australian Infantry Battalion was Captain Samuel Victor Templeton. A man who had served for many years before the war in the Victorian Scottish Regiment (VSR) and who went missing during the opening stages of the campaign.

Born in Belfast in 1901, Sam Templeton grew up in one of the most vibrant yet troubled times in Northern Ireland. For the Belfast of Templeton’s youth was one of great prosperity. As the largest city in Ireland, Belfast’s skyline was dotted with chimneys from linen mills and the cranes of the shipyards, the product of industry. In fact, Templeton’s father Thomas was gainfully employed by Harland & Wolf as a carpenter and among other great ships, he worked fitting out the Titanic. The Templeton home at 1 Newport St, was a happy one and reward for a hard-working Presbyterian family.

At the time of Sam Templeton’s tenth birthday, Belfast had grown to a population of 385,000, a 10% increase since his birth. With the influx of people and subsequent expansion of the city, the tension between Protestants and Catholics increased. Although in 1911 Catholics represented 24% of the city’s population they only made a small number of the skilled work force. The Catholics stuck together in the south-west of the city while the Protestants controlled the rest. Secular divide in society, schooling and the workforce resulted in Protestants aligning themselves with unionism and Catholics with nationalism. With Irish Home Rule on the horizon Belfast become the centre of loyalism.

The First World War would delay Ireland’s Home Rule and the workers of industrial Belfast would either join up or continue working for the war effort. Templeton was too young to serve at the start of the War however by war’s end he had managed to enlist. Sam volunteered for service in the Royal Naval Reserve on 25 April 1918 and served on the depot ship HMS Vivid III before being posted as a Signal Boy to HMS Queen and to operations in the North Atlantic. After serving on HMS Cormorant, Templeton discharged from the Royal Naval Reserve on 14 April 1919.

His naval record describes him as 65.5 inches tall with sallow complexion, grey eyes and a chest measuring 35 inches. For his service in the First World War, Templeton was awarded the British War Medal & the Victory Medal.

The Great War had placed Ireland’s Home Rule on hold and although Irish Nationalist in the south had attempted an uprising in Easter of 1916 it was not until the immediate post First World War years that a war on Irish soil would come. At the December 1918 elections, the republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory. Templeton would not be out of uniform or away from war for long. In January 1919 the Irish republicans formed a breakaway government Dáil Éireann declaring independence from Britain.

Templeton joined the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in July 1919, just as Cogadh na Saoirse or the Irish War of Independence, was underway. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) using guerrilla warfare against the British security forces battled it out in the towns and cities of Ireland. Templeton was no longer the boy sailor, the face in his photograph at the time of service in the RIC differs greatly than his naval enlistment photo. By the time of his discharge in May 1921, Templeton had seen his fair share of the troubles.

Family folklore speaks of both Sam and his brother being forced to flee Northern Ireland. After being spotted in a Belfast pub by Nationalists whom brothers had been locked up by the Templeton’s, the brothers were forced to flee Northern Ireland. Although no record has come to light with regards to Templeton entering Australia, it is believed he arrived sometime before 1924. On his way, he had stopped in Scotland and Canada before arriving in Australia.

Templeton worked for the Victoria Railways Commission in 1924 and resided at Centre Dandenong Road, Cheltenham before moving to Blanche St in East Brighton. Templeton married Ms Doris Lila Allen in 1928 and within two years they had had a son, Thomas Victor Templeton who tragically, died in 1931. Templeton would later have another son, Reg Templeton who also served with the VSR in the post-Second World War years and is still alive at the time of writing this article.

The inter war years would see Templeton enlist in the 5^Th Battalion Victorian Scottish Regiment. His service record indicates he enlisted on 19 September 1930 and served mainly in B Company. He was promoted to Corporal in 1931 then Sergeant in 1932. Templeton went inactive form his militia service between the years 1932-33. However, he reenlisted in September 1936 back into the VSR. Within two years he was promoted Company Sergeant Major.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Templeton went to full time duty in September 1939. Templeton wanted a commission in the 2^nd Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) with hope of serving in the Middle East. However, AIF service was to elude him. Instead by October 1940 he found himself commissioned as a platoon commander in the 39^th Australian Infantry Battalion. Posted to B Company The 39 Australian Infantry Battalion, he found himself in the company of mainly of young recruits not yet twenty-one and ineligible for service with the 2/AIF or a few men who had endured the horrors of the last war and were too old to join the 2/AIF.

The 39^th together with the 49 & 53 Battalions, formed the scratch 30 Australian Infantry Brigade, hastily sent to Papua to protect Australia from the Japanese threat. The 39^th sailed from Sydney to Port Moresby at the end of December 1941. Upon arriving in Port Moresby, the men were used as labourers, unloading ships and building static defences.

By February 1942 the war was well and truly on Australia’s doorstep with daily sorties been flown by the Japanese air force, launching their attacks out of New Britain. Some of the survivors of the Rabaul garrison had returned to Port Moresby with the ghastliest of stories about Japanese treatment of POWs. With the Japanese invasion and capture of Salamaua in March of 1942, the war had well and truly arrived on mainland New Guinea.

Before long the tropical conditions would take their toll on the older men of the Battalion. Many either succumbed to fever or malaria and were classed not fit for tropical service and returned to Australia. Templeton was the only officer to remain that had seen service in the First World War.

The invasion of the Australian territory of Papua and subsequent attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland track through the Owen Stanley mountains, would take place at any moment. In response to this imminent threat, B Company of the 39 Australian Infantry Battalion commanded by Captain Sam Templeton, would be sent north over the Kokoda Track.

The last remaining officer of the 39^th, Alan ‘Kanga’ Moore remembers sharing a tent in Port Moresby with Templeton. Kanga recalls that Sam would only speak about himself after the hurricane lantern was blown out and even then, he was guarded. However, Templeton’s men held him in high regards for he paid a personal interest in his individual soldiers, often trying to assist and council them on their affairs.

Templeton and his men set off on 7 July 1942 from McDonald’s Corner to cross the Owen Stanley’s. However unbeknown to Templeton, the Yokoyama Southern Advanced Seas Force, a Japanese force well-supplied and well trained in the art of jungle warfare, were preparing to land between Gona and Buna on the north coast of Papua. Many of these Japanese soldiers had been the vanguard of the Japanese success to date. 

During the trek across the Owen Stanley Range, Templeton and his men were led by Bert Keinzle, a plantation owner from Kokoda and a man who would later be hailed as the architect of Kokoda, due to his organising of the native carriers or Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. Keinzle would later name the crossing of the mail routes at Eora Creek-Templeton’s Crossing-in honour of ‘Uncle Sam’

Men in Templeton’s charge, among themselves, referred to Templeton as ‘Uncle Sam’ owing to his dedication to them. Jack Wilkinson, who was attached to B Company recorded in his diary:

‘7/7/42, Made Ioribaiwa. Had carriers for our packs and just as well. Felt the trip more than the first day. Two long hills to climb. Missed out on tea as I was with last of the troops. Had a job to get some of them to make it.. ‘Uncle Sam’ came back and helped me about half way up the last hill. Was carrying four rifles and three packs and had doubts about making in myself. ‘Uncle Sam’ insisted on carrying all my gear as well as that of others’.

On arrival at Kokoda while B Company rested, Templeton walked almost the same distance again, although relatively flat, to meet the schooner the Gilli Gilli, which had brought around the unit’s heavy supplies. Always the hands-on manager, it was while Templeton was returning to back to Kokoda that he heard what may have been the sounds of thunder rolling through the valley. Instead of thunder it was the Japanese shelling the coast in preparation for their landing on the northern beachheads.

In response to the Japanese invasion, Templeton sent forward Lieutenant Mortimer’s 12 Platoon with Lieutenant Seekamp’s 11 Platoon to follow while Lieutenant Garland’s 10 Platoon was to defend Kokoda with the vital airstrip in preparation for the arrival of reinforcements. Seekamp and his men were tasked with holding Awala village not long before Major Watson of the Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB), along with some Australian officers commanding native troops contacted the Japanese. At 9am on 24 July 1942, Major Watson withdrew what little of his own force and the B Company men back over the Kumusi river, destroying the wire bridge behind him. 

The 39^th Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Owen arrived at Kokoda by air. Templeton returned to meet him before the two officers marched on to the front and the two forward platoons. Meanwhile these two platoons had been engaged in rear-guard actions, including a successful ambush, where Seekamp and his men had sprung upon the Japanese at Awala.

When Templeton and the CO arrived, Seekamp and his men had withdrawn to Goirari. Owen had requested reinforcements to be sent by air from Port Moresby and there was hope they would arrive soon. Before leaving to return to Kokoda and the reinforcements, Owen ordered Templeton to make a stand 800 yards east of Goirari. Outnumbered and outgunned B Coy, assisted by the few reaming men of the PIB, managed to delay the Japanese but were eventually forced to withdraw and take up new defensive positons. With the Japanese getting closer to Kokoda, Templeton and his men now took up position at Oivi.

Waiting patiently for the promised reinforcements to arrive, disappointment soon followed as instead of a full company of men, only Lieutenant McClean from Don Company, commanding a half platoon came forward. Just as these fresh troops were dispersed, the Japanese unleashed. The situation became untenable and unless the rest of 16 platoon and Don company arrived death if not worse awaited the Australians.

As the day wore on, Templeton sent a runner, Private Sydney Moffatt, back to Kokoda to guide the reinforcements whom he believed to have landed at Kokoda, to Oivi. Unbeknown to Templeton only one other flight had arrived and carried only the second half of McClean’s platoon. In any event Moffatt never made it. It was now 26 July 1942, five days after the Japanese landings.

Frustrated a new runner was prepared, Ted Stuart who was to try again to make his way back to Kokoda in hope of leading in the reinforcements. Just before Ted was about to depart Templeton intervened and decided to go himself, alone. It is believed Templeton feared the Japanese would ambush the reinforcements moving up from Kokoda. Not long after Templeton left, Sergeant Martorana of 12 Platoon asked where the ‘boss’ had gone. Ted was soon ordered to catch up with him, however Templeton ordered Ted to go back saying: “We need every man at the front lad”. Eventually Sergeant Martorana went out with a Papuan Policeman-Lance Corporal Sanopa, to find Templeton. Before they had a chance to catch up to Templeton a single shot was heard and Sanopa halted the party, saying “Stop I can smell them (Japanese)”. Martorana and his party returned to Oivi.

It is believed Templeton had walked into the Japanese who by now were well advance in encircling the Australian positon. So much so that Sanopa ended up leading the 70 odd men through the jungle safely to Deniki, a village on the track overlooking Kokoda. While this was going on Owen and 10 Platoon and the other half of Doug McClean’s platoon who were the very last to arrive by air, withdrew up the main track to Deniki.

With reports that Kokoda had not been occupied by the Japanese, Owen took what men he had reoccupied Kokoda, he signalled Moresby that the aerodrome would be reopened and requested men to be flown in. Despite the airstrip being cleared of obstacles, the pilots fearing Japanese Zeros deemed it to ‘hot’ to land and turned around. From now on any other reinforcements would have to walk the 96 kilometres’ overland to Kokoda.

By the early hours of 29 July 1942, the first battle for Kokoda had begun, the Japanese fired mortar and machine guns as they charged up the small rise of the Kokoda Plateau. By 3am in the morning Owen had been mortally wounded and the battle for the Australians had been lost.

At some point between the battle at the Kokoda Plateau and Templeton going missing, ‘Uncle Sam’ had ended up a prisoner of the Japanese, so too did Sydney Moffatt and several other B Company men. Captured Japanese documents reveal that the Yokoyama Advance Force interrogated Templeton, further to this a Japanese medical officer- Lieutenant-Colonel Yanagisaw Yamagisawa claims to have treated Templeton for wounds and witnessed his interrogation. Templeton may very well have slowed down the Japanese advance thus buying time for the men of the AIF to arrive. It is claimed that Templeton lied about the strength of the Australian forces awaiting the Japanese.

After the death of Owen and the 39^th withdrawal to Deniki, reinforcements arrived, men who had walked over the Owen Stanley Ranges. To take temporary command, Major Allan Cameron, ex-Lark Force and escapee of Rabaul Garrison, had been sent. Cameron had orders to recapture the airstrip. He sent out three companies and by 8 August-A Company of the 39^th made their way through the jungle and into Kokoda, the few Japanese occupiers fled and the 39^th managed to hold Kokoda for two days between 8-10 August 1942. By all accounts Cameron was a gung-ho commander and had not much time for B Company. However, did the Japanese hesitate based on Templeton’s false information. Did Cameron’s quick take of Kokoda, back up Templeton’s story in the eyes of the Japanese.

In any event the Japanese were severely delayed in their advance over the Kokoda Track thus allowing the men of the 2/14 and 216 Battalion to arrive at Isurava. Perhaps the actions of Templeton changed the course of the Kokoda Campaign.

Written & researched by David Howell (Kokoda Historical)