Lot 1134

Description

Scotch College, Melbourne, Alexander Morrison Memorial Medal, Founded 1904, in gold (35.25 grams, 49mm) by Stokes & Sons. Edge inscribed 'R.T.E.Latham 1926'.

Richard Thomas Edwin Latham (1909-1943) was the elder son of Sir John Latham, politician, diplomat and chief justice. He was educated at Scotch College and University of Melbourne and was Victorian Rhodes scholar in 1931, graduating with first class honors in jurisprudence at Oxford in 1934 and was elected a fellow at All Souls. During the Spanish Civil War he drove a lorry for a relief society. He joined the Foreign Office on the outbreak of World War II and worked as a clerk in the refugee section where he was an outspoken critic of the British treatment of internees. Accepted by the Royal Air Force in 1941 he trained in Canada and was commissioned as an observer. His aeroplane failed to return from a flight over the Norwegian coast on the 15th April 1943. (ADB)