Colin Davidson

Who is Colin Davidson?

Colin Bancroft Davidson was a land surveyor and Captain in the Australian Military Forces during World War II who was awarded the US Medal of Freedom in 1948.

He originally went to Papua in 1929 to manage a coffee plantation, which was underwritten by a group of businessmen in Cairns, Australia. However, due to financial issues, caused by the great depression, the plantation was abandoned. As he was already in Papua, he applied for and was employed as a surveyor for the Papuan government, where he went on to survey the south-eastern Papuan coast and up the Kokoda track to the Owen Stanley Range, up until 1941 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded.

He was surveying and acting as a coast watcher near Gona, Papua when the Imperial Japanese Forces came ashore at Gona, upon hearing of the landing he personally supervised the evacuation of 58 women and children from the villages along the Kokoda track as the Japanese forces advanced, although the advancing forces were less than 8 hours behind them, he successfully reached Port Moresby with all the evacuees in tow.

Colin Bancroft Davidson held the rank of Captain in the Australian Military Forces during World War II and as a result of his services to the allied forces he was awarded the US Medal of Freedom by President Truman in 1948, the honour was gazetted in the Australian Commonwealth Government Gazette on 15 April 1948. As the medal was not a Commonwealth honour it was firstly approved by King George VI and subsequently presented to him by the then “Administrator of Papua” in Port Moresby.