Lieutenant Colonel Colin East
In 1964, Lieutenant Colonel Colin East became the first Australian (and the first foreign) student to attend the Indonesian Army’s Command and Staff College (Seskoad) in Bandung.
In 1964, Lieutenant Colonel Colin East became the first Australian (and the first foreign) student to attend the Indonesian Army’s Command and Staff College (Seskoad) in Bandung. East began his military career as an infantry private in 1938. During World War Two he served with the Second Australian Imperial Forces in the United Kingdom and the Middle East, and he was severely wounded in the Battle of Tobruk. The remainder of his service during the war was in Darwin and as a company commander in the 2/9th Infantry Battalion in Balikpapan.
East completed Australian Staff College in 1955 and in 1957, and attend the University of Melbourne in the evenings to study Indonesian language and culture. He developed a reputation for his clarity of thinking and ability to mix with people of all ranks and nationalities, including during his time posted to the 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade in then-British Malaya from the end of 1957.
East was warmly welcomed to Bandung as the first foreigner to become part of the Seskoad family. At the time, the Australian Government underlined its long-standing recognition of the value of Australian military personnel attending courses in Indonesia. The fact that the Indonesian Government welcomed East to Bandung in 1964 during a period of regional tensions is testament to Indonesia’s shared commitment to building people-to-people links between our two armed forces.
East’s pioneering contribution to Australia-Indonesia relations is recognised to this day by the annual Colin East Award Study Visit. Each year students from Indonesia and Australia’s Command and Staff Colleges undertake a study visit to deepen their understanding of each other’s language, culture, and defence and security policies. Above all, the Colin East Award recognises the importance of people to people links between the Australian Defence Force and the Indonesian National Armed Forces.