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Makan – No. 25
Official Organ of 2/30th. Bn. A.I.F. Assn. Christmas Makan Door Dig, The biggest smile of the month came from one of the daily papers which reported that Black Jack has persuaded one of the British Regular Regiments, the Queen's Own, no less, to adopt Waltzing Matilda as its Regimental March. Do you remember the display of temper when our Div. Commander refused B.J. permission to adopt the song as our own particular property. The Old Gentlemen wrote from Berlin to us that the intense cold and lack of heating fuel plays hell with his corns and that he will be glad to see Australia again. Ron Johnston has moved into a house of his own built in the main according to plans he originally drew in Changi. The tong bathroom and kualis in the kitchen puzzled the plumber who was not used to luxury fixtures but the finished cottage is a credit to the builder who had never laid an attap roof before. Wally Eather is working hard in a one pupil school up Tamworth way. He has a nice little cottage and hopes that by the time his pupil reaches the Q.C. stage he will be able to enrol one of his own children as a pupil and keep them coming for many years. It seems to be a very ingenuous method of securing permanent employment for any person in that line of business. Wal’s memory is not as good as it has been and his wife usually sends along in October a postal note, for subs., purchased by Wal in the previous January. Jimmy Webster was sighted at Singleton Show looking very smart in his uniform of Pipe Major of the Newcastle City Pipe Band. Sid Stephens is engaged to be married shortly and we believe that Andy Noble is also lined for the big jump. Les Rogers, ex-H.Q. Sig., drove a jeep over the side of a mountain in New Guinea and broke his right arm, a couple of ribs, and severed a tendon of his right arm. The jeep was pulled up by a few tress above a drop of over a thousand feet. Les has always been a lucky fellow, he was one of the few survivors picked up when the ship which was taking him to Japan was torpedoed by a Yankee sub. Les works with Carl Gunther who is a medico up there and Jim Allen, 2/10 R.A.A.. They all send their best Xmas wishes to you. F Force boys will recall that Major Gunther was the skin specialist who examined us when we returned from Thailand. We congratulate Bubba Bridgewater and send our felicitations to his new wife. Andy Noble was best man and presided at the usual beer swilling which went on after the service. Congratulations this month also go to Steve Allardice who recently became the proud Daddy of a son and heir. The 3rd Annual Reunion on the 19th November was a roaring success. One hundred and sixty-two turned up, all determined to have a good time and they excelled themselves. Jimmy Cooper opened the night with the King and Fallen Comrades, and dear Old George Ramsay in response to the toast of the Regiment made one of his usual wizard speeches and followed it up with a toast to our patron, Brig. Galleghan, who is still in Berlin. Jimmy finished all the formalities in 20 minutes and then the mob joined in a seething orgy of reminisce which, as the night were on, and the grog kept flowing, grew better and better. In fact it became almost impossible to tell of the old incidents yourself because some ignorant fellow in each circle would chip in and recite the balance of the story before the speaker could tell it himself. We must have been too long together because - each men in the Unit could recite without any trouble any one of the hundred incidents which happened in different places. Sargent's did us well with a good supper, should have included champagne for the price we paid, and the waitresses kept the jugs coming as fast as the boys could drink them. They did drink too, 90 gallons in 5 hours and as there were no broken glasses, no incidents, and no real drunks, the little fellow in charge kept rushing out to compliment Jimmy Cooper on the good behaviour of the show. The one big mistake of the evening was the buffoon we hired to play the squeeze box. He began by disciplining the lot of us while we listened to his first "act" which consisted of a Glen Garrie cap on the back of his silly head and a bracket of sub-normal songs sung in a voice which by the smile on his face was supposed to be a better imitation of a Scotchman's voice than Harry Lauder's, but which in reality sounded like a lunatic Tamil toddy gatherer in his cups. Not content with this insult to our intelligence he then proceeded to practically climb into the microphone and thump his infernal machine so loudly that pictures fell from the wall and the noise, coming in waves like bomb blasts, almost turned our eyeballs in their sockets. The best part of his performance was that it seemed so pleasant when he stopped playing. After our eardrums clicked into place again we thanked him for his services, paid the brute and sent him pecking. No more artists for us. Other 8th Div. Units were represented, we saw Jacky Shrimpton, 2/18th, Leo. O'Connor and Padre Marsden, 2/20th, Jim Rutherford 2/29th, a lad from 30 Bty. 2/15th, a couple of Timor boys and others I cannot remember. Most of our lads looked well but there were a few shocks, Jimmy Dinnen was not the best, he has just spent 3 months in Yaralla with a spot on the lung. Ned Keleher left early for the same reason and there were a few who took it easy because of recent illnesses. Reg Ellis - who planned the whole' reunion was a noticeable absentee, he was taken back to Yaralla on the morning of the reunion and will probably be there for some time again. Curley Heckendorf rang from Lockhart to give his best wishes and we received other greetings from here and there with a special message from Black Jack in which he exhorted us never to forget our departed comrades and to stick together as we have in the past. Reunions are great harvesting grounds for new members and we bobbed up with eight more. They were Reg Napper, recently married to a slashing girl, Bluey Peterson, who had Buckley's chance of getting home to Woy Woy seeing that he left the smoko about 15 minutes after his last train left Central, Tommy Grant, C. Coy, fairly fit, "Snowy" Mason, A. Coy, still in the Army, Harry Riches, very thin and worn, "Doughy" White, a prosperous baker, George Smith, A. Coy and Frank Sullivan B. Coy. both looking fit and happy. I made a grave error here because I haven't the addresses of Georgie Smith or Frank Sullivan and must have them. Addresses are also required of the following members: F.W. Bushby, A.R. Cameron, K.G.C. Donohoe, R. Dickson, F.J. Hayes, A.G. Olley, J.G. Lane, and F.G.E. Randle. If you know any of these addresses please write them on a slip of paper and post them to me or better still ring Jimmy Cooper, B.4177, and ask him to tell me. We welcome our old friend Cpl. Bob Wright who is still in the Army as the latest member to transfer to Life Membership. There were dozens of funny little incidents at the re-union but space has me beaten. We are sorry if you were not there because we know how much you would have enjoyed it. It is a great thing to see 162 good fellows in one lump and we hope to see the numbers at our annual shows increase for a few years yet until they begin to fade out as we will all do one day. We are enclosing this little book "Six Out of Borneo" because we think that you should read it not as an incentive to breed hatred or revenge but to bring home the futility and stupidity of all such unnecessary suffering. We had over seventy of our cobbers on that march without one survivor and you could easily have been one of their number. The double tragedy of these fine follows was that most of them were wounded in action or had been too ill to be sent away in the first working parties. As you sit down to your great Xmas dinner and start to growl about your awful room or the shortage of bottled beer a little thought for your dead cobbers will make you realise how lucky we really are. So the Association sends to you, your wives and your families its very best wishes for a happy Xmas. We especially remember our lads in hospital and wish them a speedy recovery and we send a sympathetic greeting to the next of kin of our deceased comrades.
We wish you all that you wish for yourselves. P.S. A gentle reminder from Reg. Ellis that subs, for 1949 are now due and they will thankfully be received.
Here is this month's list of addresses:
President: J.Cooper, 105 Pitt Street, SYDNEY Back to 1948 index or Main Index |