Out of the 73 servicemen commemorated in Kempsey's Streets of Honour program who lost their lives in World War II, almost half died in the Pacific theatre of operations.

One of these was Frank Richard ('Dick') Archibald, who fought in major battles in North Africa and Greece before losing his life in New Guinea.

Dick Archibald was born on February 17, 1915, at Walcha, one of the 12 children of Frank and Sarah Archibald.

With a friend, Arthur Bowen, Dick enlisted in the Army in May, 1940, and the men embarked from Sydney on August 30 as reinforcements for the 2/2 Battalion, 16th Brigade, in Egypt.

They fought in the battle of Bardia in eastern Libya, in which Kempsey men Gordon Nixon and Cyrus Saul were killed, then at Tobruk and Benghazi until March, 1941, when their Battalion was deployed to Greece in anticipation of a German invasion there.

There followed a fighting withdrawal with both Dick and Arthur escaping the German onslaught however, here they went separate ways.

Dick Archibald returned to Australia in early 1942 where his Brigade was required for the defence of the homeland. In August, 1942, Dick, and his younger brother Ron, who had also enlisted, were entertained at a welcome home social at the Rendezvous Theatre in Kempsey along with Privates Frank Delaforce, Sid Barden, Paddy McGuire, Dom Hand, Neville Thompson, Jack Paine, Jim Fischer, Arthur Yates, Arthur Waters, Amos Harvey and Seaman Ron Burnett.

In New Guinea, the battle for Kokoda had been won and the Australians and Americans looked to push back the invading Japanese to their landing beachhead at Gona, Buna and Sananada.

In September, 1942, Dick arrived in Port Moresby with the 16th Brigade, which also included a number of other Kempsey men.

They were addressed in Port Moresby by the Australian Minister for the Army, Frank Forde, and the Allied Commmander in Chief, General Douglas Macarthur, who told the assembled troops that they had been chosen for the job of capturing the beachhead and that the eyes of the western world were upon them.

The 16th Brigade Battalion, including the 2/2 Battalion and the 2/1 Battalion, fought three major engagements between September and December, losing other Macleay men James Ramsay, Charles Parry and Stanley Dyson before Dick Archibald was shot dead by a sniper on November 24.

The following month, a young Kempsey militiaman, Clarence Ryan from the 36th Battalion, was also killed in action in the same campaign.

The 2/2 Battalion was withdrawn to Port Moresby in December, leaving other units to achieve their objective early the following year.

Out of the 670 men who had arrived there in September, only 88 remained.

The Macleay River Historical Society is proud to have been associated with the Kempsey-Macleay RSL sub-branch and Kempsey Shire Council in the historically significant Streets of Honour program of street-naming.

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