Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

SELGE Bill (Toivo)

MB BS DPH

1937-2013

Bill (Toivo) Selge was born in Tartu, Estonia on the 7th September 1937, the son of Johannes and Leonora Selge.  His father was a seaman, soldier and a mechanic. They lived in a small rented house close to his grandparents. When Selge was about five or six years old the Russians invaded Estonia.  While his father was in the military fighting the Russians, his mother took him and fled to Poland. Shortly afterwards Poland was also invaded and he and his mother moved to Arnsdorf in Bavaria. His father returned from the war against Russia and found his wife and son through the Red Cross.  The family survived WW2 with his father repairing cars for the German army. This had the benefit of using the cars on weekends for family trips. Selge recalled that he had strong memories of war planes flying overhead, which initiated in him a desire to fly in later life. The family was moved between many refugee camps towards the end of the war. They were accepted for emigration to Australia, in 1950. His uncle Etka was already living in Adelaide so they joined him and settled in Marryatville. Selge was educated at Norwood High School and despite his difficulty of limited English he did well at school and made many friends.  During this time he changed his name from Toivo to Bill. He maintained his childhood dream of flying and when he was sixteen he started gliding.  He then applied to train as a commercial pilot but was devastated to learn that he was colour blind and all his aspirations were dashed.  He was eventually granted a restricted licence and completed his flying training in small powered aircraft. He left school to work in a bank to fund his flying, but this was not a fulfilling career, so he took a job as a laboratory assistant in the medical school at the University of Adelaide.  During this time he studied at night school to matriculate and took further part-time study in science at the University of Adelaide, in 1958, which was sufficient to enrol him into the 2nd year of medicine. He joined the University of Adelaide Air Squadron, and following third year, he was accepted as an undergraduate medical officer in the RAAF. Selge continued his interest in flying throughout his university years and built a glider with two other people.  He was made a gliding instructor when he was twenty one years of age followed by assistant chief flying instructor of the gliding club. He met his future wife Heather, nee Cochrane at an air show. She had taken gliding lessons with him as instructor.  They were married in 1960, and were to have two sons. Around this time he also decided to buy a fixed wing aircraft with some mates. However the plane crashed before Selge even got to fly it. Luckily no one was hurt. The pilot’s seat and some instruments from that plane are the only surviving artefacts, and his sons Peter and Michael would often play in the seat and pretend they were pilots.

Selge completed his medical degree in 1964, graduating in 1965, and spent his resident year at the RAH, in 1966.  He then commenced his return of service to the RAAF. He was posted to Laverton airbase and subsequently moved with his young family to Butterworth airbase in Malaysia. He was posted to Ubon, Thailand from 12th July 1966 till 16th February 1967. He was present for a “red alert” incident in 1966. He was also involved in medevac flights on two occasions from Vung Tau, in 1968 and 1969. A letter of appreciation from the Department of the Air Force of the United States was forwarded to his Commanding Officer relating to the actions of his and a Sergeant Ryan of the RAAF in response to a search and rescue operation while in Ubon. Selge recalled many good memories of living in Penang. It was in Penang where he took his only foray into sailing.  He bought a small sailing boat, which was promptly destroyed in a storm. He returned to Australia, in 1969, and they lived at the Williamtown airbase for a year before being discharged from the Air Force having completed his obligatory return of service for his undergraduate study. He was awarded the Australian Active Service Medal 1945-1975 with clasp Vietnam and Thailand, the Vietnam Medal, the Australian Service Medal 1945 -1975 with clasp SE Asia.

The family moved back to Adelaide in 1970, followed by a year in Sydney, to complete his Diploma in Public Health, in 1971.  He then began his professional career as a medical administrator with the South Australian Health Commission. He bought a block of land behind their home and built three flats on it and a swimming pool. He did much of the excavation work by hand, citing it as a great way to keep fit. He obtained study leave, in 1974, and embarked on a world tour for 8 months visiting different hospitals. He started in America and the Caribbean on his own, before the family joined him for a 6 month tour around Europe. It was a different city every day, or so it seemed, travelling in style in a VW Kombi. Returning to Australia, the family bought a property near Wistow in the Adelaide hills, and work commenced on establishing a pistachio orchard. The soil and climate of Wistow perfectly suited this then exotic and expensive crop, which was to provide the retirement income in years to come. Alas, the crop was never a commercial success, the local cockatoos getting the lion’s share of the fruit, though the family did enjoy the occasional harvest. He established the Port Adelaide Community Health Service in the early 1980s and acted as its Director. This was his last role before his retirement.

Tragedy struck Selge’s life in the mid-1980s, when he was diagnosed with depression and as a consequence retired from the Health Commission.  His wife, Heather, was diagnosed with lung cancer at the same time and died in December 1986.  His mother Leonora died shortly after in 1987 and father Johannes in1991. It was a difficult time, but he overcame it and concentrated on his property and despite the failure of the pistachio crop, threw himself into growing grapes.  He undertook a wine making course and, returned to his innovative and inventive capabilities. He made many thousands of litres of wine utilising various contraptions, including wine presses from old washing machines, as well as a de-stemming machine fabricated from a selection of bicycle forks welded to a Drum made from perforated steel plate. For a backyard operation it was a production line on a grand scale and this gave Selge many years of enjoyment. He met his new partner Barbara, in 1990, and they spent the next twenty three years holidaying and socialising together. It was whilst on holiday, with Barbara, going to Spain and Morocco that Bill ‘Toivo’ Selge suffered a stroke and subsequently died just over a week later, on 8th September 2013, one day after his 76th birthday.  He was survived by his partner Barbara and his two sons, Peter and Michael, and his four grandchildren, Tamara, Dylan, Caitlin and Amy.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-1975.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD