Basil Catterns
Basil Wilfred Thomas Catterns, MC (11 August 1917 – 30 March 2007) was an Australian businessman, a citizen soldier and an amateur yachtsman.
He was born in Balmain, Sydney, the son of Wilfred Catterns and Emily Greenwell. His uncle Basil G. Catterns later became Chief Cashier of the Bank of England. Basil went to Fort Street High School and worked at The Sun, a Sydney newspaper.
When World War II began, he joined the Australian Army. He served with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force in the Middle East and North Africa, including the siege of Tobruk. In 1942 his unit returned to Australia, and he married Nina McKnight in 1943.
In September 1942 he went to New Guinea with the 2/1st Battalion and fought along the Kokoda Track. For bravery he was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in despatches. His battalion commander called his actions the bravest thing he’d ever seen. He stayed in New Guinea for the rest of the war, eventually reaching the rank of major.
After the war he worked in advertising. He produced a film of the Melbourne Olympic Games, sailed in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race six times, and founded Offshore Yachting, the magazine of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. He was also a long-serving member of the Sydney Maritime Museum.
Basil and his wife lived in Sydney and raised three children: David, a barrister; Diana, an artist; and Angela, a radio broadcaster. He died in 2007 at age 89.
His wartime story was featured in the Kokoda documentary on ABC1 in 2010.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 01:57 (CET).