 Isaacson was born in London on 31 July 1920 to an Australian father and an Austrian mother ; his parents moved to Australia with him when he was six years old . Growing up in Melbourne , he was educated at Brighton Grammar School and started work at sixteen as a messenger boy on The Age , where his mother Caroline edited women 's features . All of Isaacson 's immediate family would eventually serve in World War II : his father , Arnold , a World War I veteran , joined the Volunteer Defence Corps , his mother became Public Relations Officer in the Australian Women 's Army Service ( AWAS ) , and his sister Joan became a photographer with the AWAS . 
