Alan Stretton

Major General Alan Bishop Stretton, (30 September 1922 – 26 October 2012) was a senior Australian Army officer. He came to public prominence through his work in charge of cleanup efforts at Darwin in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day 1974. mostly children, then a record for the most people aloft in the one aircraft.

Early years Stretton was born on 30 September 1922 in Melbourne, Victoria. He was educated at Caulfield Grammar School and Scotch College, Melbourne.

Football In 1946 and 1947 Stretton played 16 games of Australian rules football in the Victorian Football League with St Kilda, after arriving at the club from Duntroon.

Military career Stretton served in the army from 1940 to 1978. In the Second World War he served as a platoon commander in the 2/9th Battalion.

In the Korean War he served in the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment from 1954 to 1955. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire on 13 December 1955.

During his time in Malaya and Vietnam, without attending a lecture, he studied by correspondence from the jungle and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland in 1966. He was admitted as a barrister in the New South Wales and High Courts in 1969. with Sir John Cornforth.

He wrote The Furious Days: The Relief of Darwin (1976) and Soldier in the Storm (1978), retiring from public life in 1978. He practiced law in Canberra into his 70s.

He died on 26 October 2012 at Batemans Bay Hospital in New South Wales, aged 90.

List of honours