He was the 4th child
of 7, Elleen, George (born before the first world war), then Bill, John, Bob, Lionel
and Fred born after the war. They moved to Woods Point on the river near Tailem
Bend during the depression years, Patty got work as a dairy farmer. John or Jack
as his brothers called him went to Woods Point schools he had to repeat year 7,
as there was no high school.
After school Jack worked at Woods
Point Limited at sheep station as a rouse about.
Jack enlisted 14th
October 1941 in the Navy, trained and worked as an Able Seaman Radar Operator. He
served on a corvette called the Cesnock. He worked on submarines patrols and
escorting merchant ships, he was based at Columbo. After the war in Europe
finished they then came back to Australia and formed the newly formed British
Pacific fleet. John was at Tokyo Bay when Japan officially signed the surrender
and then on to Hong Kong for its surrender 3 days later. Then they picked up
prisoners from all the Islands around the pacific and Burma.
After the war he was a security guard at Woomera. He went to Millicent as a stock agent for Oats & Co, then joined the Lands Department and cleared soldier settlement blocks at
Canunda and all over the South East. In the earlier years he played football for
Hatherleigh, later we found out it was only because he was keen on one of the
goalkeepers 5 daughters.
Johns story is that Daphne jumped
out in front of his car in the main street of Millicent to attract his
attention. He nearly ran over her.
John met Daphne Elizabeth Skeer
and married in 1953, they had Haydn, Nigel, Gayle. In 1959 they acquired a soldier’s
settlement block at Canunda and named it Shangrila, which means a place of peace
and tranquillity (We often wondered about that) then came along Lee and
Brett. John had an affinity with the
land. The children have many stories about their loved farm life as
when…………..
Johns special place on the farm
was Billy Goat Island where Brett went to visit on Saturday morning. Even though
John was a hard working farmer, he still involved himself in his sons sports, he
was President of the Baseball Cub for a few years and even filled in for the B
grade team and was a very good batter.
He also enjoyed taking his
daughters to the horse Hunt Club; he especially liked the stirrup
cup (which involved a lot of laughs
and a few stiff drinks).
He liked to go to the RSLClub and
to the Anzac marches with his RSL mates (which we have a suspicion a lot of sky
larking happened).
In 1979 John married Helen Banks
and met Donald (who he adored and who adored and respected him). Then came along
the apple of his eye Catherine.
In 1988 John retired and moved to
Millicent and then to Mt Gambier, in this time they went for a trip around the
world, which John often spoke of his experiences. In 1994 he did the Anzac March
in Canberra at the War Memorial and was saluted by Peter
Cosgrave.
In 1997 John packed up the Honda
and moved to Arno Bay and lived with his son, daughter in-law and grandchildren
Haydn, Annette, Danny and Zoe. He adored this daughter in-law and grand children
and all the local children who called him Pop (everyone called him
Pop)
He loved cross word puzzles,
gardening, the news, drives to the beach and Fridays when he and Annette went to
Cleve for coffee, to do X lotto (hoping for that big win) and picked the grand
kids up from school (save that long trip home on the bus).
John was a keen lawn bowler and
played first division pennants for Mt Gambier RSL and Arno Bay Bowling Clubs. He
won 2 runners up Pairs Championships with his son Haydn, and won many other
events. He was especially proud when he got to play a game of 4s with Haydn
Annette and Danny.
Pop had a very dry sense of
humour when things went wrong with the Department of Veteran Affairs, he would say bugger them I am NOT GOING
TO FIGHT ANOTHER WAR FOR THEM.
Pop was a one eyed Port Power
supporter and would often say when having a bad health day, you better ring Port
Power and tell them I cant play this week.
Pop loved his children and the
loves of this life were his 17 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. He liked
to brag about them to others but he struggled to tell them himself. He often caught the bus to Gayle’s to visit
all the kids and grandies in Adelaide and Millicent.
On April 25th 2012, Pop
marched in the Arno Bay Anzac March and also became a permanent resident of the
Cleve Hostel where he had a very short stay until June 3rd when he
was flown to the Flinders Medical Centre with acute renal failure. When we all
got to say good-bye. We lost John, Jack, Dad Pop and old Pop
on Saturday morning June 16th 2012, aged 89 years.
John was a proud upstanding man
with a dry unique sense of humour, which bordered on the edge of being politically incorrect. He was a dear loved Brother, Father, Father In-law, Grandfather, Great Grandfather and friend.
.JPG)
