Education and Early Life
Ivan Noel Dougherty was born on 6 April 1907 in Leadville, New South Wales, a small town between Dunedoo and Coolah, New South Wales, the son of Isabella Dougherty and a father he never knew. He was educated at Mudgee High School and Sydney Teachers College. In 1928 he became a teacher at Marrickville Junior Technical School (now Marrickville Public School). While teaching by day he completed a four-year Bachelor of Economics degree at the University of Sydney. He transferred to Tingha Public School in 1931 and then to Armidale West Public School.
In 1926, while still at Sydney Teachers' College, Dougherty joined the Sydney University Regiment, in which he was commissioned as a lieutenant on 27 July 1927. He was promoted to captain on 11 September 1931 but was moved to the unattached list in 1932 following his posting to Tingha. His posting to Armidale allowed him to resume his part-time military career, and he joined the 33rd/41st Infantry Battalion on 20 December 1934, and then the 33rd Infantry Battalion when it resumed its separate existence on 1 October 1936. He was promoted to major on 14 February 1938, assumed command of the 33rd Infantry battalion on 1 December 1938, and was promoted lieutenant colonel on 28 August 1939.
Dougherty returned to Leadville at least once a year to visit his mother. On a visit in 1935, he met Phyllis Lofts, a fellow school teacher who taught at Coonamble High School. They were married at St Stephen's Presbyterian Church in Sydney. This cut short Phyllis's teaching career for the time being, as married women were not permitted to work as teachers at that time. During the Second World War this regulation would be relaxed and she was able to take a position at Goulburn High School. They would eventually have five children: Margaret and Graeme, born before the war, and, later, Maureen, David and Noela.
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