Dudley was born in Gunning, NSW on the 4th of July 1920 to Walter Ernest and Neita Sheldrick.
Living in Mary Street, Mitchell and working as a carrier transporting wool, Dudley enlisted with the Australian Military Forces on the 11th of May 1942. He was issued with service number Q127607. Taken on strength with the 7th Infantry Training Battalion at Goondiwindi on the 27th of May, before being transferred to the 11th Infantry Training Battalion. It was here recruits underwent basic recruit training before continuing with specialty training. Dudley was to undertake No 4 Course at the Guerilla Training School at Enoggera on the 12th of June.
While there, on the 30th of September he was convicted of being AWL from 20:00 hrs on 23rd of September until 14:00 hrs on the 29th of September. At the Exhibition Grounds. Given an admonishment he also forfeited 6 days’ pay. Despite this, surprisingly he was promoted to Acting Corporal on the 8th November.
Dudley transferred from the Australian Military Forces (AMF) to the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at Goondiwindi, Qld on the 15th of December 1942, where his attestation shows his next of kin as his father. His home address was listed as Station House, Gloucester where his parents lived. He was reassigned a new service number – QX44690.
On the 25th of January 1943 at his own request, Dudley reverted to Private and marched out from the 11th Training Battalion, Warwick to Q.L. of C Area General Details Depot (GDD).
Canungra Training Centre comprised of the Advanced Reinforcement Training Centre (Jungle Warfare), a Commando Training Battalion and an Independent Company centre for units reforming or refitting.
The Commando Training Battalion trained men for 7 different Independent Companies. The training and living conditions there were tough and as close to jungle combat conditions as possible. Discipline was tough, and you needed to be physically fit to survive the exercises. Over a three-week period, the men trained six days per week for 12 hours per day. This included six nights per week. On the fourth week they were sent on a six-day exercise in the rugged Macpherson range. They carried their own rations. The training for the Independent Company reinforcements was even more intensive than this and extended over an eight-week period.
Dudley marched in to the 1st Australian Commando Training Battalion Canungra from 11th Infantry Training Battalion on 25th of February 1943. On the 10th of April he was evacuated to 22 Australian General Hospital (AGH), also at Canungara with abdominal pains. He was discharged to his unit on the 17th of April.
Originally raised in August 1941, the 2/4th Commando Squadron initially performed garrison duties in northern Australia before being deployed to Portugese Timor to reinforce other Australian units waging guerilla warfare there. After a brief campaign the 2/4th was withdrawn to Australia. On return the company reformed at the Jungle Warfare School at Canungra, in April 1943 where it received reinforcements and new equipment.
Having completed his training, on the 15th of May, Dudley marched out to the 2nd/4th Australian Independent Company.
On the 18th of July he was again promoted to Acting Corporal shortly before he was again evacuated on the 27th of July, this time to the 2nd/2nd AGH with Renal Colic where he was transferred to X list. He was discharged to 2 A.C.R.C. on the 31st of July where he was taken on strength the next day.
On the 9th of August 1943, the 2/4th embarked aboard the H.T. Allen disembarking at Milne Bay on the 11th of August where they were placed under the command of the 9th Division, attached to the 26th Brigade. On 4 September, the 2/4th participated in Australia’s first amphibious landing since Gallipoli when they landed at Lae during the Salamaua-Lae campaign. The 2/4th came ashore in the second wave of the landing, suffering heavy losses with thirty-four men being killed or missing when their Landing Ship Tank was attacked by Japanese dive and torpedo bombers. After the landing, the 2/4th began reconnaissance and flank protection operations for the 26th Brigade until 30th October, when Lae finally fell.
It was during the reconnaissance and flank protection operations that Dudley was ‘Killed in Action’ aged 23 years on the 13th of September 1943 and was buried at Nadzab (co-ordinates 675548 3506), Kuna Ridge. He was later reinterred at the Lae War Cemetery, grave D.A.3.
