HYETT, Bruce Alan (1923-2013)
Born at Geelong on 4 September 1923, the son of Harold Rupert Hyett and Lois Marie nee Chandler, he was educated at the College from 1929 until 1941. In his last year he was in the Athletics Team and won the Rifle Shooting Cup. He enlisted in December 1941 in the Geelong 23/21st Battalion, later transferring in 1943 to the 2/8th Battalion . Pegasus of December 1945 reported: ‘Bruce Hyett's wounded hand, a result of a serious patrol clash at Hill 2, Aitape, New Guinea, has healed very well’. James Affleck recorded that ‘Bruce's memories of the jungle are vivid, and similar to those of anyone else who served there: the humidity (to overcome the problem of sweating, at the start of the day they would totally immerse themselves in a creek so they were saturated from the start, rather than through a gradual process); traversing the ranges with 50-601b weight in their packs, including spare ammunition for the machine guns; not following ridge lines or spurs, but virtually walking up the sides of mountain ranges. He spoke of their taking casualties at Aitape, and of a cemetery being placed on the river bank there; soon afterwards heavy rain fell and the river burst its banks, diverting its course and taking the cemetery and its contents out to sea.'
Ian Hawthorne in One Man's Eye noted: ‘After serving in the AIF he started Wycombe Industries in 1950, and won several Australian Design Awards. He was an active member of Geelong Legacy, on the Management Committee of Grace McKellar House, the Illawarra Community Centre, the Geelong Art Gallery and the Deakin University Building Committee. He was a member of the Design Institute for ten years (1965-1975). Bruce married Susan Jane Hamilton on 23rd January 1948. In 1975, he started the Prince Albert Vineyard at Waurn Ponds with Neil Everist and later assisted in the establishment of the Rudolf Steiner School at Freshwater Creek’ .
Both his sons, Simon David Hyett (1952-2009), and Rod, were educated at the College. Bruce died, age 89, on 17 February 2013.
Sources: Pegasus Dec 1945; Ian G Hawthorne. One Man;s Eye; A Decade of Geelong People; James Affleck. Geelong Collegians at the Second World War p293; Geelong Advertiser 21 Feb 2013. OGC 1973.