Jack Easter

Jack Easter

(Dreadnought Archives)

Jack Stuart Easter was born in 1907 to John and Alice Easter, in St Johns Wood, London. His father was a coach builder, and the first production Bentley motor car was to be delivered in 1921 with ‘bodywork by Easter’.

Jack was educated at Ardingly College in Sussex and Regent Street Polytechnic in London. At fifteen, he decided that a life of stiff collars, bowler hats and pin-striped trousers was not for him, and told his parents he wanted to go to Australia. His father opposed the idea, but Jack was persuasive. He sailed on the Themistocles and arrived in Sydney on 7 August 1923 under the Dreadnought Scheme.

Sent for training at Grafton Experiment Farm, Jack was there from 9 August 1923 to 21 January 1924. This had been an exceptionally wet period, and had taken its toll on Jack. He decided he would return to England, but after less than a year in England, Jack returned to Australia and resumed the life of a Dreadnought Boy. His first job was at a farm at Newrybar, in the coastal hills near Byron Bay. When he first looked out and saw the sea, a wave of homesickness took him, and brought tears. A woman’s voice beside him said, ‘Come on now. No time for that,’ and he was put straight to work milking cows. From then on Jack changed farm jobs fairly often, until he leased a property at Gundurimba, dairying and running a few cattle.

One day in a Lismore street, he saw a very unhappy young man leaning against a street post. Jack learnt that he was a Scottish lad, who had come out to Australia to join an uncle, in business in Lismore. When he arrived, he found the business closed and the uncle gone. Not a rare story in those years. Jack offered him work, ‘I can't afford to pay you but you can have a bed and your keep until you can find something better.’ The young man accepted, and he and Jack worked together for several years.

In 1932, Jack married Margery Joan Thomas and they lived on the property for the first years of married life. During this time Jack’s mother and father came to Australia and stayed with them at Gundurimba. They were somewhat dismayed at the living and working conditions. His father could not understand why Jack chose to put up with the heat, mosquitoes and thunderstorms, when he could be living a life of comfort in England - but Jack refused to be lured back to the comforts of England.

When the lease on the farm ran out in 1934, Jack and Margery moved to Ballina where Jack bought a cream run with agencies for fertilisers, produce and petroleum products. The cream run was between Ballina and Broadwater, with petrol and produce deliveries throughout the district on the off days

Between 1930 and 1948 there was a railway line which brought produce and petrol, and a few passengers to Ballina. When the train arrived about 6 pm with produce, the trucks had to be cleared that night for the 7.15 am return trip the next day. Jack and his wife worked hard, often until early morning, transferring the goods onto their motor lorries and then to their storage sheds. On the non-cream days, the goods then had to be delivered to farms in the district and up river. One old resident commented ‘Jack knew how to handle a 44 gallon drum of petrol’.

Gradually the dairies closed down, the butter factories closed and the cream runs died out. Petroleum products became the main business, as farm mechanisation took over. However, as the years went by, the business prospered and Jack opened an office in Ballina. He bought several farms in the surrounding area, maintaining his interest in dairy, as well as adding sugar cane production. Jack was involved with several producer organisations, and also took a great interest in community affairs. He was a strong supporter of the Anglican Church in Ballina, and was involved in the planning of St Andrew’s Retirement Village.

Jack Easter is best known for his public service. He became an Alderman on Ballina Council in 1941, serving as Mayor of Ballina from 1948—1952 and again from 1971—1974. He became a Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly representing the Lismore electorate in State Parliament from 1953—1959.

Jack is especially remembered for his gift of land on Lennox Head in 1977. This had been part of a dairy farm that he owned. It now gave public access to the most scenic part of the coast, a vantage point to watch migrating whales, and immediately below, board riders surfing the world- renowned point break. It is also a launchpad for hang and paragliders.

Jack Easter died on 2 March 1978, aged 70 years. A Police Guard of Honour escorted his cortege on the way to the crematorium.

He was always likely to do well, and, making the most of his opportunities, was an outstanding example of enterprise and service. A most notable Dreadnought Boy.

Arthur Woodford

The recent fires, which ravaged the Tabulam area in northern NSW, remind us that a number of Dreadnought Boys began their farm life in this area. William Arthur John Woodford was one of them. In 1927 Arthur left the Isle of Wight, as a boy of 16 years and 6 months. He travelled on the SS Beltana with 39 other lads. Some of them were to become life-long friends. Quite a few of Arthur’s classmates from the Grammar School in East Cowes had made plans to go together, but as the time approached only Arthur proved to be the adventurous one, as the others pulled out for one reason or another.

Arthur’s diary of the voyage out showed that, apart from some “blue moments”, it was a remarkably good journey. One day out from Fremantle, on 31 October 1927, Arthur and those travelling with him were paid £2 “landing money”, as well as the assisted passage and the pocket money while in training. On arrival in Sydney on 18 November, Arthur was sent to Grafton Agricultural Experiment Station for his farm training. With him were five others from the SS Beltana, including his mate Les Bown.

Having left behind a loving mother who had just lost twin infant daughters, a young sister, his father and a large extended family on the Isle of Wight, and many friends, Arthur was now placed with a new family – the Hollidays, near Tabulam. Their farm had 800 acres with 7 horses and 97 cattle (according to a 1928 pastoral directory).

Like other boys who were more academically inclined, Arthur Woodford took the opportunity to read widely at night to further his education. There were also good opportunities to be involved in community activities. In later years he would recall riding with other lads to bush dances at the end of the week, with their musical instruments in tow, and then, riding back after the dance to arrive just in time for milking.

However, the Depression changed things for everyone on the land. Both Arthur and Les Bown (who had worked near Casino), headed north and spent time in the Queensland cane-fields.


                                                 
                                    (Les Bown and Arthur Woodford on the way to the canefields.)
                                                                             Dreadnought Archives
Arthur returned to UK in 1935, but only stayed a year, as he said he ‘felt hemmed in’. He came back to Australia and, in 1936, married Sally. In due course Arthur joined the prison service and worked for the Corrective Services Department in various positions, such as gatekeeper at Maitland Gaol and librarian. He later became a court recorder at Newcastle Supreme Court. He was well-respected in all these positions, and in retirement he wrote a training manual for court recorders.

Arthur’s wife, Sally, died in 1956. He subsequently married Iris, in 1957. Arthur died in Maitland on 10 November 1985. Arthur did return to the Isle of Wight once again in 1984, just before his death.

His decision to travel as a Dreadnought Boy was well and truly justified. Arthur loved the island he came from, but he had made a new life in Australia, and became a respected part of its community, especially in the Hunter Valley Region of NSW.

James Payne

James was born on 11 September 1908 in Birkenhead UK. He started work as a baker’s errand boy in 1922, but within a year was working in the shipyards. He first worked at Cammell Laird and later, in 1924, at the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board de-scaling and cleaning ship boilers.

On 27 May 1926 James Payne emigrated from Liverpool under the Dreadnought Scheme, with £20 and a case of clothes, on Shaw Savill and Albion’s ship, Pakeha. There were 47 other boys in their group on the ship and, after calling in at Cape Town for coal, Albany, Adelaide and Melbourne, they arrived in Sydney on 17 July.

James was immediately sent to train at Grafton Experimental Farm, until 8 October 1926, when he was placed on a farm at Spring Grove, near Casino. The following year he was joined by another ‘English lad’. Farms were being sold up because of drought, but when rain had come bringing the new grass, James’ boss needed another milker. Apart from the milking there was very little to do, and eventually the farm was sold, and the two boys paid off. They headed for Sydney.

Sensing better opportunities, James Payne travelled from Sydney to Wellington, New Zealand, on the Ulimaroa, on 12 August 1927. He stayed at the Salvation Army Hostel until his money ran out, and went to the Labour Exchange. There were no jobs available but just as he was walking out, he was asked “Can you milk cows? Can you fence? An enquiry has just come in.” He was sent to Mr Charlie Thomas’ farm at nearby Miramar, where he got the job.

For the next two years James worked on several farms in the areas around Wellington and Lake Wairarapa, but on 17 July 1929 a new opportunity came. There was a major earthquake at Murchison on the South Island, followed by a nation-wide call for men to help in the reconstruction. James Payne and others responded. When they arrived in Murchison, they asked the local storekeeper about getting a job. They were told the Public Works Department Foreman would be in that afternoon. When he arrived, they signed on and received a tent fly, an axe, a shovel and a few utensils.

The earthquake had cost 17 lives and done damage over a wide area. Many roads and several rivers were blocked. For his part in the reconstruction, Jim initially worked on access tracks, then stone cages for the sides of the Maruia River and later on the repair or rebuilding of bridges. He continued in the bridge gangs, living in tent camps near the work. In 1932 he brought his bride, Minnie Gibson, to share this life.

By 1938, James Payne was on road work as a permanent surfaceman for the PWD. However, petrol rationing and the need to educate the children well, meant a move to Nelson by 1943. Boarding at first, they were soon in their own home. As Jim had his PWD shot-firer’s ticket he was kept busy around the coast.

As this work eased, he was employed on the highways with the only tarsealing plant in the Nelson District. In 1946 the Tar Sprayer got cancer and Jim was asked by the PWD to take over that position. On doctor’s advice, he later left the job because of the health risk.

After a number of cleaning positions, James became Head Porter at Nelson Public Hospital in 1962. After more than four decades away, he was able to visit his relatives in Birkenhead UK in 1969.

James Payne lived until 1990 when he died, aged 82, after a short battle with cancer. Ironically, the doctor diagnosing the cancer was the son of the doctor who had advised him to leave the tarsealing work.

George Anderson

                                               (Courtesy of National Trust of Australia) 
George Ernest Armstrong Anderson was one of the quiet ones. Born on 17 November 1911 in Bury, Lancashire UK. In 1926, he applied to come to Australia under the Dreadnought Youth Migration Scheme, just as his brother, Hugh, had done the previous year. His younger brother, Horace, followed in 1928. He sailed from London on the Baradine reaching Sydney on 18 November 1926, the day after his 15th birthday. George was immediately sent to the far North Coast to the Wollongbar Agricultural Experiment Farm, for three months training. His first placement was at Binna Burra (near Bangalow NSW), but later moved on to the Central West area near Parkes, in 1928. George subsequently found work as a clerk and then as a mechanic. His family had followed him out to Australia, settling in Sydney, where George joined them.

When he enlisted in the Australian Army, on 20 October 1939, George was working as a lift driver in O’Connell Street Sydney. In the army, he was captured and escaped twice from the Germans on Crete. George was discharged on 15 September 1945 on compassionate grounds, having been a prisoner of war. On his return to Australia, he joined the militia (CMF) reaching the rank of Captain.

While he was away, in early 1941, George’s mother Alexandra moved to Hunter’s Hill, to Vienna Cottage. This became George’s home for nearly 50 years, he was its last tenant. This home is a small artisan’s cottage in Alexandra Street Hunters Hill, built in 1871. Being one of the suburb’s older stone buildings, it is of great interest to local history buffs. It is owned by the National Trust of Australia. Living in the cottage on his own after his mother died, George devoted himself to his garden – with his beloved roses, azaleas and especially his rows of annuals. Getting up at 4am, he had his breakfast and read the paper, then into the garden. A brief break for lunch then back again until dusk.

George was not a communicative man and some people found him brusque and unfriendly. But his neighbours remember the kindness he showed to their children. He was bemused as to why people found Vienna so important. However, he tolerated the inevitable invasion of his privacy and was always co-operative with the local members of the National Trust. When he moved to the Narrabeen War Veterans’ Home in 1991, George left a challenge for the Trust which had no hope of keeping such a high-maintenance garden, while wanting one which recaptured something of the brightness of its past.

George passed away on 16 August 1994, at the age of 82 years.

Jock Burnet

Malcolm Valentine Burnet is probably unique among the Dreadnought Boys, coming from a family attended by servants such as housemaid, gamekeeper, chauffeur and gardener. His ancestors included Scottish Lairds and a Lord Mayor of London. Malcolm Burnet was born in the Chateau de Wierre au Bois, in northern France, on 13th February 1906. The family moved back to Scotland when his father inherited the family home, Elrick House near Aberdeen, while Malcolm was still very young.

As a younger son, and now teenager, Malcolm Burnet saw the opportunity for a different life and linked up with the Dreadnought Scheme. Arriving in Sydney on the Jervis Bay on 12th March 1923, 17- year-old Burnet was sent to Grafton Experiment Farm and trained there for six months. Dairy farm placement followed. Like others in his group, he had to repay the £15 loan for the fare, which he did in October 1924. He subsequently decided to make his own way and headed for Bundaberg, or further, in Queensland. So, in 1926, having “jumped” a train and reached Mackay, ‘Jock’ Burnet slept a few nights on the bank of the Pioneer River, before walking 50 km to Finch Hatton to work at the Cattle Creek Sugar Mill.

Jock was to live in the Mackay area for the rest of his life. In 1928 he married Ethel Mildred Jane Puckering, and in 1930 was able to get a contract to sell butter and ice for the new Butter factory.

His first retail venture was the Melody Music Shop in Victoria Street in Mackay from 1933. Five years later he established a circulating library. World War 2 intervened and, in the month before the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, Jock enlisted in the Volunteer Defence Corps. Members of the VDC were used as coast-watchers, for defence of key installations, and also did guerrilla warfare training. Jock was discharged in October 1945.

After the war, in 1946, Jock had a fruit shop in Wood Street Mackay, which he later expanded with a luncheon bar. Ten years on he worked as a commission salesman for a couple of years then, from 1958, Jock ran Burnet’s Café – until he retired in 1971.

Jock was never homesick and had little time for the ‘landed class’, nevertheless he kept in touch with the family. His mother and a brother and a sister made visits to him in later years. Eventually he did return to Aberdeenshire for a visit.

Malcolm Valentine Burnet passed away in 1992, aged 86 years – a man of enterprise.

Bill Aiers

While many Dreadnought Boys went on from rural life to other pursuits, some becoming quite prominent, it is useful to hear of those who stayed with it. James William Stanton Aiers was one of these young men.

Bill was born in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire UK, in 1906, but within a few years the family had moved to the Oakthorpe district in Leicestershire. During the First World War, when most fit men were away at the Front, Bill worked in the fields, starting straight from school. This continued after the war, but Bill heard from friends that it was a much better life in Australia. Both he and his older brother Ronald decided to go. Their aunt paid for their passage, with the boys accepted for the Dreadnought Scheme.

The Aiers boys travelled out on the Demosthenes, which reached Sydney on 27 November 1922. Although they both had farm experience, they were sent to Glen Innes in northern NSW for more farm training. On completion of training, Bill was placed in the Urbenville area (about 15km south of the Queensland border), evidently on the Connell farm on Beaury Creek. In 2008 Bill, aged 102, was interviewed by ABCTV- Landline’s Tim Lee who asked about his experience of the people at the farm. Bill was emphatic “They were really good…….they were good to me.” Bill met Hilda Taylor on a neighbouring farm, and they were married in 1929. By 1935, Bill and his family were in Urbenville and he was working as a carrier.

In the early 1930s, there had been a big controversy in Bill’s area about the cattle tick eradication programme. Through it, Bill had become a pioneer in the construction of the chemical dips used for tick control. But time had come to move on, and the end of the war years saw Bill living in Queensland; in 1947-48 he was involved with Brook Lodge, a well-known Palmwoods dairy cattle stud which specialised in Jersey cattle. From there he went on to Cooroy where he worked in banana and sugar cane production.

Bill went back to England three times for visits, but never wanted to stay. After one visit, Bill commented “The best thing I did in my life was coming to Australia.”

Bill’s wife, Hilda, died in 1977. His own long life came to an end, several months after the Landline programme was shown, when he passed away on 20 October 2008. Bill Aiers had done what the Dreadnought Scheme intended.

VALE - ALAN GILL

The Dreadnought Association lost a good friend and strong supporter when Alan Gill passed away on 23rd February this year.

Alan George Frank Gill was not a Dreadnought Boy, but, had come as a migrant from UK with his wife, Daisy, in 1971. He worked with the Sydney Morning Herald as a journalist and, for many years, was the Religious Affairs Reporter for the Herald. Here he met with leaders of all faiths – from the Pope to the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and many others.

Alan was a man of compassion and insight and this was reflected in his newspaper work and his later writing. In 1985, Alan Gill won a Walkley Award for excellence in journalism. In 1995, Alan was recognised for his services to the media when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia.

Alan Gill’s interest in the Dreadnought Boys dates from 1974 when he first met Arthur Braun, and then Norman Monsen a few weeks later. Alan joined the Association and got to know many Dreadnoughts in the years that followed.

Alan Gill at the 1994 Reunion and AGM

                                                                         (photo: Association Archives)

In retirement, Alan Gill wrote the ground-breaking book Orphans of the Empire (1997) where he exposed the realities of British child migrants and their treatment. Then came Interrupted Journeys, Refugees from Hitler’s Reich (2004). This was followed (in 2005) by Likely Lads and Lasses, Youth Migration to Australia 1911-1983, and in this comprehensive book, he included stories of individual Dreadnought Boys.

When the Association celebrated the Centenary of the Dreadnought Scheme, in 2011, Alan played a key role in its success. Alan had always looked after his fitness with ocean and harbour swimming and dancing with Daisy as partner, but in recent years his health declined. He died a month short of 81 years.


We salute you Alan Gill.