Early years
Edward Renata (Muhunga) ‘Tip’ Broughton was born on 6 September 1884 at Ngapuke, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
He was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School and joined his father, a sheep-farmer, in the family trade.
In 1902, he overstated his age to serve with the 9th Contingent, New Zealand Mounted Rifles in the Boer War in South Africa.
In 1915, he joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and served at Gallipoli. By 1916, he was in France with the Maori Pioneer Battalion and was made a Captain.
Career
Tip is best remembered for his career in Australia.
After he was demobilised in 1919, he moved to Melbourne and began working as a bookmaker.
In 1940, he again lied about his age in order to qualify for military service, claiming 1900 as his birth year in an application to the Australian Imperial Force.
Two years later, he was in command of the 8th Australian Employment Company. The army had discovered his true age, and because he could not be sent overseas they placed him in an Australia-based unit.
The company was staffed by refugees from Nazi persecution – most of them transported from Britain on the infamous H.M.T. Dunera – who had volunteered for army service after being placed in internment camps on arrival in Australia.
Many of the volunteer labourers had faced harsh treatment and discrimination during their journeys as refugees and resented being sent to internment camps.
Tip earned the labourers’ admiration by treating them as individuals with dignity, respecting Jewish customs and even learning some words in German to communicate more easily.
Many of the so-called ‘Dunera Boys’ would go on to have glittering careers in the arts and other areas of public life in Australia. Exemplary of his empathetic approach to leadership, Tip excused the musicians among them from hard labour to avoid damaging their hands.
Karl Duldig from the Dunera group made a bronze sculpture of Tip in tribute, which is now housed at the Australian War Memorial in Melbourne. While Duldig was working as a kitchen hand in the Employment Company, Tip provided him with access to clay and plaster so he could continue practising his craft.
Death
Broughton’s time with the 8th Australian Employment Company ended in 1944. He spent the majority of his retirement living in Melbourne.
On 9 May, 1955, he died of hypertensive coronary vascular disease, and was buried at Fawkner Memorial Park.
While he lived on in the memories of the many refugees whose lives he had touched, Tip lay for many years in an unmarked grave.
A group of Dunera Boys organised for a bronze plaque to be installed, which read, “An understanding and compassionate man.”
In 2006, the retired journalist and veteran Keith Hooper successfully campaigned to establish a more official memorial on the site. Tip’s new memorial was funded by the Returned and Services League (RSL) and features a plaque provided by the New Zealand government.
Bibliography
Adapted from material supplied by historian Dr Jan Penney, GMCT Trust member 2010-2020.
Loewald K (1993) Broughton, Edward Renata (Tip) (1884–1955), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University [website]
Schwartz L (2006) Honouring an unknown soldier, The Age, Melbourne
Image source
Image from Australian National Maritime Museum.