RESOURCES & RESEARCHERS

 

An historical website such as this is reliant on information resources which can include data published on other websites, in books and documents, photographs, personal letters, diaries and personally shared information. It is not a work of fiction, it is based on facts, and is an enormous story with thousands of parts to it. It is also going to continue to be a work in progress as new stories and photos come to light.

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The aim of this website is twofold. First to share with you as much relevant information as possible and second to pay due homage to the heroes, the Rats of Tobruk. We make no apology for not committing the published information into our own words. The facts and history has been done countless times before and would require precious time simply restating facts and figures recorded elsewhere.

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This website is for the Descendants of the Rats, their families and friends, students and visitors alike to learn and cherish the memories of the men to whom we owe so much and who should never be forgotten. It is solely for the purpose of sharing the plethora of information that exists but rarely compiled in the one place. Hence many of the pages have copyright free text borrowed from public resources such as the AWM, Wikipedia, public documents, DVA, NAA and many others. With other photos and documents, permission has been sought and gained before use. There are many individuals involved with personal projects and research who have greatly helped and contributed to the information we have compiled.

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Our Rats are diminishing in numbers and we need to have this website and the individual tributes to each of these men, in place for the 80th Anniversary of the Siege of Tobruk, in 2021. This is a monumental task and we have a long way still to go.

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Researchers such as Owen Carlton and Roger Murphy have spent years following information trails, verifying details and compiling lists and, in the process, accrued immense amounts of knowledge that previously was only known to a few who had studied the Rats of Tobruk.

Without their dedication and valuable input the whole project would falter.

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This Association began at the behest of some of the surviving Rats themselves, who saw the need for the Descendants to be identified and unified. This task fell onto Betty Murphy and her daughter Sarah Maas who could best be described as the founders of the Association and without whom, this website and Association would probably not exist.

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But to accomplish a task such as this requires the unswerving dedication and time of a group of individuals known as the "Researchers".

Dedicated and focused, these people freely give their time - countless hours, days, months in locating, searching, checking, discussing and verifying information about individual Rats of Tobruk so that this information can be preserved forever. They put given names to initials, locations, places of birth and death and with luck, an image of the soldier and their last resting places. We offer our thanks and gratitude to these people, too numerous to name individually, but they know well who they are and what they do.

 

There are also countless individuals who have contributed by providing family histories and family photographs. Anyone who has articles they would like to add to this site, please contact the admin.

We gratefully acknowledge and thank these organisations who have been the source of information contained herein.

 

NO SURRENDER 

DataRat - the Website Administrator