Leslie Allan "Peter" Chitty BEM (12 March 1912 – 27 March 1996) was an

Australian rules footballer Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

who played for St Kilda in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) and who won the only "Changi Brownlow" awarded in the

Prisoner of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

Changi Football League.

Youth

Born in

Corryong, Victoria Corryong is a small town in Victoria, Australia east of Albury-Wodonga, near the upper reaches of the Murray River and close to the New South Wales border. At the , Corryong had a population of 1,348. The post office opened on 1 February 1 ...

, Chitty grew up on the family

dairy farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that ...

near Corryong and, along with his brother

Bob Chitty Robert Main-Warring Chitty (4 July 1916 – 4 April 1985) was an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL). Family The son of Alan Peter Chitty (1884-1981), and Hannah Evelyne Chitty (1887-1 ...

, became a leading footballer in the region for Cudgewa. Chitty continued to work on the family farm while playing as a rover in the

Ovens and Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Austral ...

with the

Border United Football Club Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

, in Albury and played in the 1935 O&MFL Grand Final lost to

Rutherglen Football Club The Rutherglen Football and Netball Club is an Australian rules football and netball club playing their home games in Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia. The current Rutherglen FNC was created after the merger of Ovens & Murray Football League sid ...

, until St Kilda enticed him down to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

for the

1936 VFL season The 1936 VFL season was the 40th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 2 May until 3 October, and comprised an 18-gam ...

VFL career

Awarded guernsey number 36, Chitty made his VFL debut for St Kilda in Round 11, 1936, against

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

at Brunswick Street Oval. After missing Round 12 with a leg injury, Chitty returned to St Kilda's league side for the Round 13 match against

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

.Perry, p. 17. Struck down by injuries, this was to be his last VFL match.

World War II

Chitty returned to Corryong and was working on his farm when World War II was declared. On 25 July 1940, Chitty enlisted in the

Second Australian Imperial Force The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the name given to the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initial ...

and was posted to the 2/9 Field Ambulance Convoy, initially as a

Private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

before gaining the rank of

Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

.Grant, A. (2006) "Saints in World Wars. Legends of the game – Peter Chitty", ''AFL.com.au''

9 January 2006. Accessed 24 December 2008. One of four brothers to enlist, Chitty was sent to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

on 1 March 1941 and was stationed with the Australian General Hospital in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

when he was captured during the

Fall of Singapore The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore,; ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் வீழ்ச்சி; ja, シンガポールの戦い took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire of ...

in March 1942 and reported missing on 26 March 1942 (although it was not until 9 June 1943 that his family were notified of his capture). Chitty had three brothers, Arthur, Ronald, and Phillip, who also enlisted in the Army. All three served in the North Africa Campaign, Private Arthur Chitty with 2/23 Battalion and Ronald and Phillip with 2/2 Field Ambulance. Arthur was killed in action at

El Alamein El Alamein ( ar, العلمين, translit=al-ʿAlamayn, lit=the two flags, ) is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Arab's Gulf, Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. , it had ...

on 22 July 1942 while Privates Ronald and Phillip Chitty were taken prisoner by the Germans. They were repatriated in 1943 and visited their brother's grave in North Africa in September that year.

Changi Football League

Transported to

Changi Prison Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore. History First prison Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside t ...

's Selerang barracks, Chitty became involved in the Changi Football League, the Australian rules competition for Prisoners at Changi. Chitty played for "Geelong", one of four sides in the league (the others were "Essendon", "Collingwood" and "Carlton"). The League, with 15,000 Australian prisoners to choose from, was reportedly very strong and featured a number of players from leading leagues around the country. At the end of the season, Chitty captained a side of players from

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

against a team containing the best players from the rest of the country. The match, which drew 10,000 spectators, saw Chitty awarded the Changi Brownlow from former

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

list

Wilfred Smallhorn Wilfred may refer to: * Wilfred (given name), a given name and list of people (and fictional characters) with the name * Wilfred, Indiana, an unincorporated community in the United States * ''Wilfred'' (Australian TV series), a comedy series * ' ...

(who was too ill to play). The medal, reputedly made partly from metal from a downed Japanese airplane, became Chitty's good luck charm for the remainder of the war. In 1943, Chitty was transferred to Burma where he spent eighteen months working on the

Burma Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...

.Lyon, K. "Changi champ won war within a war", ''The Age'', 23 April 2005. During this time, Chitty carried a fellow soldier who was dying of malaria more than along the Railway, partly for which, on 6 March 1947, he was awarded the British Empire Medal. After being repatriated at the end of World War II, Chitty was aboard the ''Largs Bay'' returning to Australia when the

1945 VFL Grand Final The 1945 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the South Melbourne Football Club and Carlton Football Club, held at Princes Park in Melbourne on 29 September 1945. It was the 47th annual Grand Final of the Vi ...

between

and

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

was being played. As Chitty's brother

Bob Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...

was captaining Carlton, Chitty organised a syndicate and bet everything they had (which was beer) on a Carlton win. In an upset, Carlton defeated South Melbourne and Chitty enjoyed his beers.Shaw, p. 204

Post-war

Chitty arrived back in Australia in October 1945. After two months recovering in hospital, Chitty was discharged on 5 December 1945.''Australian War Memorial'', "Brownlow Medal : Corporal L A 'Peter' Chitty, 2/2 Australian Motor Ambulance Convoy". Chitty died in 1996, aged 84, survived by his widow, Lillian, two sons, Lindsay and Roger and two daughters, Dawn and Roslyn. In 2004, Lillian Chitty presented Chitty's Changi Brownlow to the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia and some conflicts involving pe ...

.Wilson, N. (2004) "War's footy legend", ''Herald Sun'', p. 18, 21 August 2004.

References

* Perry, R. (2010) ''The Changi Brownlow'', Hachette, Sydney. . * Shaw, I. (2006) ''Bloodbath'', Scribe, Melbourne. .

Footnotes and citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chitty, Peter 1912 births 1940s missing person cases 1996 deaths Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army soldiers Australian prisoners of war Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Burma Railway prisoners Formerly missing people Missing in action of World War II Missing person cases in Singapore People from Corryong Recipients of the British Empire Medal St Kilda Football Club players World War II prisoners of war held by Japan