Vale, Bill Aldcroft. Born in east London in 1922, Bill left school at the age of 14 barely able to read or write. Not letting that stop him, Bill served as a paratrooper during the Second World War, across Africa and Europe. He was captured in Holland and served eight to nine months in a work camp in Poland.

He retrained as a marine engineer before making Australia his home. He worked on the Snowy hydro scheme and used his spare time there to volunteer, teaching English to workers that had come to Australia from all around the world. Upon moving to Canberra, he became an early advocate for a prison in the ACT and a Canberra based parole system to ensure those caught up in the system were not separated from their families. He volunteered for years with Prisoners Aid and within the legal system and was awarded the Order of Australia for this work in 2012.

Bill was a lifelong member of the Labor Party. We'll never be able to thank Bill enough for his services to our party and to his community. When being interviewed by the ABC for his 100th birthday, Bill said:

You've got a life ahead, and mine's just about at the end, but you've got a life to go. So keep going forward, never looking back.

I wish to extend my condolences to Bill's family and his many friends. He'll be greatly missed by us all.