|
Back to 1963 index or Main Index Makan – No. 158 Dear Dig, Frank Purvis of Caringbah still has occasional bouts with his ulcer but is living with it in a sort of neutral partnership. Ted Campbell of Wolseley Park, Wagga sends his best wishes. Ted & his wife are "Makan" fans & look forward to reading the bits about the boys. "Bluey" Peterson is temporarily out of hospital where he recently spent 3 months & was later discharged as a T.P.I. His wife has written saying how much he appreciated the visit of the Hospital Committee. Bluey is young to be a T.P.I. & does not take to it too easily. It is hard to accept such a verdict when one would normally see a long period of working life before one. Alan Smith has become a Life Member to save himself the trouble of sending in his 10/- subs., & also as a gesture of assistance to our funds. Alan is one who has changed very little in recent years. We report with regret the premature death of Mrs. Alf Lamacraft & extend the sympathy of all members to Alf on his great loss. Mrs. Lamacraft & Alf’s mother were great workers for the Association during the war. Ted Watts was in Concord recently & to my great regret I missed him. He is a farming man with a big family & appreciates news of the lads as he finds it difficult to get down to our reunions. Blair Taylor, of Deakin, A.C.T., is Assistant Secretary of the West Canberra Sub-Branch of the R.S.L.& is Editor of their excellent magazine. Blair writes that all is well with him in Canberra but that his little daughters are growing up too quickly. Frank Ball, of The Entrance, has written to thank the members who visited him while he was in hospital between December & March. Frank is now suffering from a weak heart & has retired permanently to The Entrance. HOSPITAL VISITATION The Visitation Committee has submitted the following report: In Concord during June-July & August Tommy Evans, Laurie Mountford, Jimmy Dinnen, Len Dawson, Graham Bridgewater, "Porky" Moore, Alan Hamilton, Frank Dowley, Bruce "Dutchy” Holland, Jack Lonie, Ray Donald In Prince Henry Guy Hogben While in hospital, Guy Hogben died 13/7/63 & Alan Hamilton on 5/8/63. News of Jimmy Dinnen came after his discharge & no visit was made to him, otherwise all were visited once a week by the Committee. Let me have news of patients any hour. Ring Kevin Ward LAST POST Alan Hamilton, ex A Coy., died after a sudden tragic illness. He left a wife & four little children, the eldest of whom was not much more than six years of age. To Mrs. Hamilton & her family we extend the sympathy of all members at this great tragedy. Proof of Alan's popularity was the great crowd of his friends who came to the funeral to pay their last respects. Civic dignitaries who could easily have sent a representative preferred to attend themselves as they all counted Alan not merely as a colleague but as a friend. The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Allan and the Attorney-General, the Hon. R. Downing were two we saw in the crowd. A daily newspaper described Alan as one of the most popular of State Government Servants & this would probably have been so. The Old Man & about a dozen of the Unit also attended the funeral. In his work Alan held the position of Secretary of the Licensing Reduction Board and previous to that he had been Secretary to the Minister for Justice with whom he had formed a close friendship. In our Unit Alan was a very popular figure, attended all functions since the war, was always interested in our members & delighted in their successes. Alan was a good man, a good husband & a good father to his four little children. His premature death is a blow to us all. Members will be saddened to hear of the death of Guy Hogben. Guy was a nice little fellow, unassuming in himself, but highly regarded by his own Company. It was the manner of his death which was so tragic. He was unconscious or in a coma for some months at Prince Henry Hospital & he died there. Jack Greenwood used to pop in to the hospital & sit by his bed, but poor Guy never knew of his visitors from the time he was admitted to hospital. Guy was buried from the Wollongong district where a great crowd gathered to pay their last respects. 8th Division men who attended included Carl Rope, Frank Hannan, Jack Brooks, Wally Scott, all of our Unit, Guy Baker from the 27th Brigade, Alan McPherson of the A.S.C. & Charlie Dawson of the 8thField Ambulance. The sympathy of all members goes to the next-of-kin & family of Guy. Noel Johnston returned from an official visit overseas & has written us an all-too-short letter as follows: "I recently arrived home after an official trip "around the world in 80 days". This took me to West Germany, the United Kingdom & the United States of America for necessary investigations connected with the official job, but it was possible also to arrange brief visits on the way to places like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Rome & Paris. The return flight across the Pacific also provided overnight stops at Honolulu & Suva before diverting to New Zealand for three days work at the Department of Education in Wellington. The day in Singapore, as you can imagine, was full of activity. First of all, a drive up Bukit Timah Road & across the Causeway to Johore Bahru, where I stood on the shoreline to the west of the Causeway & looked across the Straits to the positions we occupied in February, 1942. There was not nearly so much rubber on the rising ground opposite & a cluster of oil tanks was to be seen on the skyline approximately where our boundary between A Coy & the Ghurkhas had been. Later I visited Kranji Cemetery. There, in a truly beautiful setting & with every grave & its environs showing colour from the flowers & shrubs so tenderly nurtured, I saw many familiar names, mostly of our own 2/30th lads but also many from sister units. The graves of Frank Tuckey and Pte. McNamara (probably from Mascot, who died at Changi in Dec., 1943) were side by side & I brought home a good colour shot of them. If any member of their families would like a copy, I will, be happy to give them one. On leaving Kranji, I drove along Mandai Road and stopped at the place where we spent most of the day on 10th February,1942 (where the pipeline crossed the road). There I took another good colour shot which shows nothing but the foliage overhanging the Main Roads depot & kampong - just as it was - with pigpens, etc., the day the shelling spelt the end for Billy Kildey & badly wounded several others. A drive across the island & then back to Singapore by the East Coast Road through Katong completed a memorable tour of spots well-known to us in those days. Incidentally, the famous kampong of Yan Kit & from there to the Changi peninsula is completely changed now. It’s all residential - no jungle or ulu worth mentioning at all. Kuala Lumpur & Bangkok were both new to me; the first a city full of charm & beauty with modern roads and buildings & spreading now into new suburbs which would leave some of our new suburbs in Sydney 'for dead' if they were put side by side. Bangkok is a strange mixture of ancient and modern & reputed to have the highest standard of living for its two million people than any other city in Asia. On the 'drome when we landed were quite a few Yankee bombers & one or two fighters, which bit of 'war atmosphere' sharpened my observations as to what we could expect of the Thais should things get worse in that general area. The answer I came to was 'nothing'. They will ride on the backs of the Yanks & gladly take all the dollars that now come their way as part of the 'fight against Communism' but when the chips finally go down they will not be worth a bumper. A weekend sightseeing in Rome, two weeks on the main job at the Hanover Fair & one or two nearby towns in West Germany, another co-incidental weekend in Paris & we were in London for a month. There was little or no chance to get away from London in that time, but I did manage a couple of days in Edinburgh (full of real interest & 'personality'). Perhaps the highlight of the stay in London was the Trooping of the Colour on 8th June, just two days before I left. You can imagine my interest (somewhat critical at times) in this spectacle, which featured the Grenadier Guards Bn., & I have quite a number of good colour slides as a result. Strange, it was not the Trooping of the 17th Battalion at North Sydney in 1938 (when I commanded the second company on the parade) that came back to my mind as I watched it. The more vivid memory was the Review Parade we did on the Barrack Square on Australia Day,1943, when B.J. took the salute. The red tunic lines of the Grenadiers were NOT as straight in wheeling and marching past as our fellows were in their patched-up shorts & shirts that day in 1943. Neither were they of the physique & stature one would expect of the Guards (at least three collapsed on the parade) so that again my thoughts dwelt on comparisons with our own wonderful 2/30th chaps. Well, it could be quite a long story. I had 25 different flights in all & saw many places of interest. I hope the boys will be interested in these snippets of the story". ANNUAL REUNION The Committee advises that the Annual Reunion will be held this year at the Great Southern Hotel on 30th November, a Saturday. The Reunion will take the form of a three-course dinner with choice of meals together with liquid refreshments. Inclusive cost will be £2 per head. If any member is unable to meet the cost of the dinner he should get in touch with Bruce Ford as soon as possible. It was felt that the new venue will be much more suitable than Anthony Hordern's. We would like as many members as possible to come to the Reunion and make it an outstanding success. Good luck Stan Arneil Back to 1963 index or Main Index |