page_title: Keith Truscott
section_title: Early life and sporting career
hierarchical_section_title: Keith Truscott / Early life and sporting career
caption_attribution_description: en:Melbourne High School cricket team. en:Keith Truscott is holding the shield. en:Keith Miller is at the back at far right.
context_page_description: Keith William "Bluey" Truscott, DFC & Bar was a World War II ace fighter pilot and Australian rules footballer with the Melbourne Football Club. After joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940, he became the second-highest-scoring Australian World War II ace, credited with 20 confirmed victories and 5 unconfirmed victories.
  After completing flying training in Canada, Truscott served in Britain flying Spitfire fighters. He returned to Australia in early 1942 and served in New Guinea, where he fought during the climactic Battle of Milne Bay. He was killed in a joint Australian–US training exercise off the coast of Western Australia in March 1943, aged 26.
context_section_description: Truscott was born in South Yarra, Victoria, on 17 May 1916, to William Truscott and Maude Truscott (née Powell). He attended Melbourne High School, where he captained the First XI in cricket and First XVII in Football as well as being a Prefect, and House Captain. While there, he mentored the young Keith Miller, who entered the First XI at the age of 14 and went on to be regarded as Australia's finest all round cricketer; both students were taught Mathematics by Test cricketer Bill Woodfull and coached football by Ralph Empey.
  Truscott enlisted at the age of 24, a day after his team Melbourne defeated Richmond and with five rounds of football remaining for the year. Melbourne was a favourite to win the Premiership; Jack Dyer stated that this was "the best side Melbourne ever had. They won three Premierships on end and but for the war years they would have shattered Collingwood's record by winning six on end."  Consequently, Truscott joining the war effort created significant publicity.
  Truscott played 44 games (and kicked 31 goals) of VFL football as a half-forward flanker from 1937 to 1940, playing in Melbourne's 1939 and 1940 premiership victories, taking leave from military duties to play in the September 1940 final.
  Melbourne Coach Frank 'Checker' Hughes wrote how Melbourne's legendary forward line included "that red-headed bullet, 'Bluey' Truscott". Truscott starred in Melbourne's 1939 Grand Final victory against Collingwood in front of 78,000 people. The Argus reported that Melbourne was down in the first quarter "and only a gallant effort by Truscott redeemed Melbourne"; after kicking a goal in the third quarter, "Truscott reached his greatest heights" and Melbourne went on to win the match. In the 1940 semi-final against Richmond, The Sporting Globe noted that "at half-time Melbourne replaced Norm Smith with Truscott . . . who immediately came into the play, dashingly gathering the ball round the wing and on the angle popping it through for Melbourne’s seventh goal" a match they won by three points.
  After being recalled from Britain and before his deployment to the North-Western Area Campaign, Truscott made one final appearance in 1942.  Anticipating Truscott's return, the Melbourne Football Club delayed the traditional unfurling of their Premiership flag at the start of the season for the match. Truscott was made Captain for the game against Richmond and wore No.1 on his jumper instead of his usual No.5. Prior to the match, John Wren, one of the country's most notorious racketeers, gifted Truscott with a cheque for £1,000 to share with Paddy Finucane.  The money was subsequently not accepted due to King's Regulations prohibiting such gifts.
caption: The Melbourne High School cricket team. Miller is standing at right. Truscott is seated with shield.
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix E550", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.7", "Image DateTime": "2018:04:16 11:33:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "338", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Manual", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1236", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7131", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:01:01 00:02:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:01:01 00:02:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "57/10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "84/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "36/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1101", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "788", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5292", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "5292", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}