‘Evesdropper’ performed vital WWII work
We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Dismiss
By Virginia Lee
Normal text size
RONALD CAMERON LEE March 18,1925-April 25, 2021
Ronald (Ron) Cameron Lee was born in 1925 in Albury, NSW, the younger son of Charles and Grace Lee. He was educated at CBC Albury, excelling academically and winning a Commonwealth scholarship to study law at Sydney University. However, instead of taking up his place, he joined the air force. It was 1943 and Ron was not yet 18.
Ron was chosen as one of a select group – eventually known as “the eavesdroppers” – which performed vital work in signals intelligence. Their skill in intercepting and decoding Japanese transmissions provided the Allies with much-needed information regarding enemy operations in the south-west Pacific. Their work was so valuable that General Charles Willoughby, Douglas MacArthur’s intelligence chief, stated soon after Japan’s defeat: �
The late John Joseph McNeill OAM was an old-fashioned romantic, dedicated grandfather and a champion of the Habana community. He passed away on November 14, aged 74, from jaundice and gall stones which had developed in his kidney and liver. His surviving wife Joyce McNeill said she met the Mackay local during his three-year posting to England in 1971 after he had served in the Vietnam War. He was an instructor with RAEME (Royal Corps of Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), Mrs McNeill said. I worked as a customs officer at an airport and I did some spare work for a friend of mine who had a pub.