BACKWELL, Dr Claude Ewart (1898-1967)
Claude Ewart Backwell was born 25 June 1898, the son of Edward Walter Backwell and Alice Maud nee Parker. He was educated at Flinders School and as a day student at Geelong College from February 1912 until December 1916. His enrolment address was Myers St, Geelong. He was in the 1st Football XVIII in 1915-16 and the Athletics Team of 1916.
He enlisted on 10 June 1918 in the Recruits’ Battalion as a Private, and was discharged without embarking on 24 December that year, due to the demobilisation of the AIF.
In 1923, he married Edith Elma Wedding, of Beulah. He re-enlisted (VX138663) during the Second World War on 29 January 1944 and served as Major C E Blackwell in 101 Australian General Hospital, where he operated as an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist in New Guinea (Feb-Oct 1944) and New Britain (Feb-April 1945). He was discharged on 19 December 1945.
Dr Claude Backwell was a qualified Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon and shared Private Practice rooms with his son, Ian Blackwell, in Geelong in the late 1950s and 1960s.
He died in Geelong on 7 May 1967.
Sources: Based on an edited extract from Geelong Collegians at the Great War p133 and Geelong Collegians at the Second World War and subsequent conflicts p114 compiled by James Affleck (citing National Archives; Pegasus; Australian War Memorial); Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Online Edition.