Mother, veteran, proud Ipswich local – riding in the Jeep up front at the Ipswich Anzac Day parades.
When 99-year-old Olive Pugh passed away peacefully last week, our city lost a true hero who served so we could enjoy the freedoms we take for granted.
Born and raised in Brisbane, she left school in Year 10 to work in an office of McDonald and East’s department store in Brisbane because her parents were concerned that her father might lose his job during the depression years.
She would become a ledger keeper and ledger machine operator, and on turning 18 she was determined “to do her bit”, enlisting in the WAAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force).
She excelled and passed the WAAAF entry exams and was chosen to be trained for the cypher unit to code and decode messages for the Armed Forces.
After special training at Point Cook, and now widely known as “Bluey” because of her dark red hair, Olive was posted to the Royal Australian Air Force command headquarters in the AMP building in Edward St Brisbane, now called McArthur’s Chambers.
As part of the cypher team, she signed the Secrets Act and was told to never talk about what they did.
She obeyed that order and would hold those secrets her entire life, never disclosing specific details.
This was the most rewarding and fulfilling time of her life, despite all the anxiety and sadness of the war, her daughter Robyn told Local Ipswich News.
After the war, she returned to the department store office until her marriage to William Henry Hamilton Pugh on March 8, 1952.
The couple would have three daughters: the eldest being Robyn, and also Glenda and Lenore, with the family growing to include six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
The family resided at Gordon Park for 37 years, before relocating to Caloundra in 1997, with Olive’s husband Bill passing in 2007.
In 2011, Olive moved to an independent villa in Milford Grange Retirement Home at Eastern Heights before moving to Milford Grange Residential Home as her health deteriorated in March 2020.
As Covid lockdowns were eased, RSL visits to the home resumed, and the secret of “Bluey” and her past as a cypher operator was finally discovered in 2021.
Yet she still never divulged the details or secrets of her service.
Acknowledgment came in being presented with a Quilt of Valour by Ross Wadsworth from the RSL Ipswich sub-branch in September 2021.
Last year on September 18, she was presented with her long-overdue medals by Group Captain Denis Tan from the Amberley RAAF Base.
With such a great, long life that saw her serve our nation – she felt such heart-warming thanks from the people of Ipswich as she rode past them in the Jeep, and subsequently from those who have since learnt her story.
