Dot Quinn and Reg Hubbard

Reg and Dot together in uniform / Source: Hubbard family

Did Dorothy Quinn mean to drop her identity tags between the gaps of the floorboards of Melbourne’s Exhibition Buildings? Did she look for them frantically and give up in despair, or did she want to leave her old life behind?

It was war-time Melbourne, and Dot was serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) as an Aircraftwoman and sick quarter attendant. She had enlisted in Perth as 19-year-old sales assistant and was soon on her way east.

A young Dorothy Quinn / Source: Hubbard family

As for Dot’s identity tags—they lay hidden under the floorboards of the now Royal Exhibition Building until 1989, when they were uncovered during renovations. Her family were astonished to hear they had survived.

Reg returned to Australia to visit Dot in Perth in May 1944. ‘The days that followed I can’t remember too well but all I can say is that I have never felt so happy in my life,’ he wrote in his diary. They were married the following month at the Church of Christ in Spencer Street, Melbourne. Two days after their wedding Reg was off again, back to his squadron’s base in Queensland.

Up at 4.30. Said goodbye to the family and then the saddest job of all saying goodbye to my newlywed wife. Never in my life have I loathed the thought of going back to camp so much.

Dot became pregnant and was discharged from the WAAAF in November 1944. She returned to her parents’ home in Perth to give birth—eagerly awaiting Reg’s home-coming and the dream of a long and happy marriage. The opportunity came when Reg’s appointment as an officer with the RAAF was terminated on 20 September 1945, shortly after the war’s end. The couple bought a farm in northern Victoria, where they raised their three children.

Reg returned home to meet his son Ken in 1945 / Source: Hubbard family

As for Dot’s identity tags—they lay hidden under the floorboards of the now Royal Exhibition Building until 1989, when they were uncovered during renovations. Her family were astonished to hear they had survived.