JACK HENSHALL June 7, 1921-January 17, 2021
You often hear people say “it’s not rocket science”, but in the case of Jack Henshall’s career, it pivoted around rocket science and engineering. His working life was a roll call of some of Australia’s pioneering missile weapons systems.
His association with rockets and missiles began as a member of Len Beadell’s survey party in the early 1950s, mapping Australia’s long-range weapons-testing range based at the Woomera, South Australia. It culminated in working on the Ikara missile, an Australian designed and built anti-submarine missile developed for the Royal Australian Navy that became a world beater.
Born in Warragul, he grew up in Coburg and went to Coburg Primary and Coburg High School. On graduating, he took an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner in the Newport railway workshops, maintaining steam locomotives.
Being bright at maths and all things mechanical, he had his sights on engineering and, on the eve of World War II, he won a scholarship to RMIT to take a diploma in engineering. Graduating in 1941, he won the Kernot Medal for best student in his final year.
Like most of his generation in 1943, he signed up for the war with the rank of private in the army. Courtesy of his engineering qualification, he was advanced to lieutenant and completed training in Geraldton, WA, and Trinity Beach, Queensland.
He was assigned to the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME). RAEME was in the rear echelon of the war as it was considered too vulnerable to be in the fighting front line. Jack’s unit moved around the Pacific islands as the allied forces steadily mopped up the Japanese. He was involved in building landing platforms and repairing trucks, amphibious army “ducks” and other heavy equipment, mainly based in Bougainville and Rabaul.
At the end of the war, he found a paratrooper’s motorbike abandoned on an army dump in Morotai. His CO authorised his “repatriation” of the bike, whereupon he cut up its frame and posted the pieces and parts home in 13 parcels, including the final package of nuts and bolts sent by registered mail. He reassembled it and his brother used it to travel to tennis on Sundays. It was a Welbike, which was designed to be parachuted from aircraft in a canister and, after unfolding the handlebars, quickly started on landing. They were impractical for this role but served usefully in allied landings and as general transport at airfields. Jack’s bike, with its army serial number still partly visible, is awaiting restoration in the Australian War Memorial’s collection.
In 1946, he was posted to Japan as part of the Commonwealth occupation forces and to help in the war reconstruction working in the British Commonwealth base workshops. While there, he visited Hiroshima, which left a deep impression. He noted the only modern building standing, although badly damaged, was the Product Exhibition Hall Building, now part of the Peace Memorial Park.
In 1946, he had the option to be discharged and be guaranteed a university place to do an engineering degree, but he decided to stay in the army then go into guaranteed employment, a decision he later regretted as the lack of a degree limited his career progression. He was discharged in 1947 and returned to Melbourne.
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