Circular No. 124
August/September, 1957

Official Organ of 2/30th Bn. A.I.F. Assn

COMMITTEE

Dear Dig,

We recently had the great pleasure of renewing acquaintance with your friend Harry Law, ex A. Coy. Harry works at the King George V Hospital and lives at Ultimo, where his wife manages a small sandwich shop. Harry is well and is looking forward to our next reunion.

Wilf Evans of Merrylands, sends regards to all his friends in the Unit. Hec Campbell of Croydon, writes that "he hopes we are all keeping as well as himself." At that rate we hope that Hec is very fit.

The Association extends the sympathy of all members to Mrs. Musgrave and Hilma Musgrave on the death of Mr. Musgrave recently. Mr. Musgrave was the father of our own beloved comrade, Ray Musgrave who paid the supreme sacrifice at Gemas. The Musgrave's have always maintained a keen interest in the affairs of the Unit and attended the film night we held in July. We hope to see them again at our next function.

Les Southwell ex A. Coy, of Canberra recently enjoyed three weeks holiday at Bateman's Bay. Three lads from the 8th Div. were living there and they "turned" it on for Les. Les is as fit as he ought to be and hops around on his one leg like a two year old. Bill Desmet of the Band dropped a line with best wishes to the lads.

Ted Lawty's wife writes that their new address is Narrabri. Ted is too lazy to write himself and Mrs. Lawty was kind enough to make the effort herself. In consideration of her effort we give you a straight extract from her newsy letter.

"My husband has been trying to get me to write this letter to you for almost two years. So at last I have settled down to write it. After Ted came out of the army he came here to Narrabri to live with the family. He took a job as a carpenter with Mr. George Foxe and has worked for him ever since. Ted built our home in the part of Narrabri they call Braeburn. We have been married two years in October and have a baby son six months old, we call Peter John."

Monty Montgomery dropped his usual cheery note along recently. We hope to see Monty at the next social for a turn on that "Ole Pianner." Jim O'Connell ex A. Coy. of Avalon Beach is another of those lazy fellows who make their wives write all the correspondence. Thanks very much Mrs. O'Connell! Jim is well.

Prior to the unveiling of the War Memorial at Kranji this year we wrote to your cobber Garry Rickwood and asked him to assist General Gordon Bennett in any way he could. Garry did the honours nicely and replied later at length. You can see from his letter that his opinion of my personal letter writing is not very high. However, it seems a pity to precis the letter, so here is most of it:

"I received your note concerning Gen. Bennett. Unfortunately I did not get it until after the ceremony. I also got a note from the Old Man, I did everything I could. I had General and Mrs. Bennett out for dinner. I found them both extremely charming, I had a few friends out, and we had a most enjoyable evening. It was nice to hear from you again, you certainly are not great fist at writing letters, but I must say you are not as bad as the incorrigible so and so Squire O’Donnell. With a bit of luck I might see you next year as I want to go to New Guinea and if I do, I will go via Sydney. I have a very interesting project in New Guinea. In partnership with my brother and two others. We have a Company registered in Port Moresby called Mt. Hagen Coffee Estates Ltd. We have a place about 500 acres at Karauka about 70 miles from Lae. One shareholder manages the place, my brother is now in England, and the other partner is also in England. So as I am the closest. I will probably go next year. Coffee seems to be very promising in New Guinea and we have great hopes of making our fortunes. I am keeping very well. I am still very keen on sailing and take a very active interest in the Royal Singapore Yacht Club.”

Film Night and Social Evening. On the night of July 27th a film night was held at the G.U.I.O.O.F. Hall in Clarence Street, as an experiment by the Committee. The experiment turned out to be an outstanding success. You will recall that during that month the influenza epidemic was raging in Sydney and as a result we received about seven apologies from disappointed members and wives who were unable to attend. Nevertheless about fifty people attended. We showed them a film and fed them well. The supper by the way was prepared entirely by your old mate, Joe Geoghegan and his wife, and Mrs. Geoghegan is to be congratulated on the excellence of her cooking.

One of the most pleasing aspects of the evening was the presence of next-of-kin of deceased comrades, and the mothers of Snowy Stevens and Eric Stone. You would have enjoyed meeting these two ladies; Snowy's mother is exactly Snowy. If ten thousand ladies marched before you, you would say "Why that's Snowy's mother." Eric's mother also enjoyed every minute of the night and we hope to see her at the next one.

All those who attended were labelled with a name tag and it helped considerably. The general consensus of opinion was that we should do this sort of thing more often and that is just what we intend to do. Our next evening will be a Christmas Social which will be held at 100 Clarence Street, on Friday, 6th December. The social will be just that and we want wives, mothers and fathers, and next of kin to come along and renew acquaintance. We hope that Monty Montgomery and Vince Leonard will come along to play the piano and we will try to prevail upon Des Kearney and Ward Booth to render an item.

Alan Pryde has changed his address to Cremorne Point, N.S.W.  Alan is a keen association man and rarely misses a function. Clyde Blencowe rarely writes to us and due to the distance he lives from Sydney rarely sees us. His latest letter is a good one and we reprint it here for you:

"The old story, better late than never, enclosed find Postal Note for 10/-. Sorry I left it so long, I have had good intentions on several occasions, but somehow kept on managing to push it aside. I look forward to each publication of Makan. It is very many moons since I heard from some of the old clan. The only members of the Unit I see regularly are Ted Campbell and A.E. (Bluey) Gray, they live here in Tumbarumba.

I would like to, and also hope to in the not so distant future, to attend a reunion. One would find quite a big gap in the ranks from what you hear from time to time, of mates who have passed on. We are in an isolated part of the State here, so far as the 2/30th Assn. is concerned. That is the big reason why we don't have contact with the Associations doings or its members.

Those responsible for the publication of Makan do a wonderful job. To them I extend my sincere thanks. We have been having very mild weather here until the last fortnight. Winter has set in with a vengeance, we had three frosts in a row with temperatures as low as 13°. Last Saturday week it snowed 6 inches which makes one big slush. My two lads coaxed me out in it to make a Snow Man. I thought I had better since the older you get the sillier you get, but these little fellows have a way which at times is irresistable. Looking forward to further editions of Makan."

Douglas McLaggan has acquired a block of Crown Land at Lindfield and recommends this method of purchase. He will pay only £15 per year for a 99 year lease with an option of buying the land at £600. Very careful Scotsmen have requested in the past that the contract for the 99 year lease contain an option of renewal but Doug, threw caution to the wind and did not press for this clause. He said that all his ancestors turned in their graves at his foolhardy act but he is taking a chance that he will not see another 99 year out. Incidentally if you are interested in Crown Land why not make a few enquiries at the Lands Department.

Memorial Cairn at Bathurst.

You will recall at the last Annual General Meeting a proposal to erect a memorial cairn at Bathurst was agreed upon. The proposal was originally put forward by Mrs. Geikie who visited the area of the old camp.

This was the end of this Makan, however, it appears that text may have been omitted and there is not the usual “cheerio” from Stan Arneil. The next Makan ‘125’ speaks of the unveiling ceremony of the Memorial Cairn at Bathurst, maybe the missing text was to advise members of this ceremony.

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