Colin McPhedran was the son of a Scots father and a well-born Burmese mother. His father was employed by the Shell Burmah Oil company in Rangoon at the time of Colin's birth.
In 1942, when the Japanese occupied Burma, Colin fled to India with his mother, his brother and his sister. He made the journey through the hazardous refugee trail of the Hukwang Valley during the monsoon, and reaching the Indian border desperately ill and debilitated he was rescued and spent months recuperating in hospital. He completed his schooling in India, spent several years in England, and came to Australia in 1951, settling at Bowral. His story is told in his autobiographical work, White Butterflies.
