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Christ’s College
- 2014 In Memoriam
During his service overseas John kept a diary,
and although not permitted, he managed to
retain this precious item throughout his time as a
prisoner. This diary is a wonderful documentation
of his time in the services. A copy of the diary
is held by the Alexander Turnbull Library in
Wellington, and the original together with some
letters, which were so very dear and special to
him, he donated to the Australian War Memorial
in Canberra.
Following his return in 1945 to New Zealand,
early in the following year John was transferred
to a new position in the bank in Sydney and the
family took up residence in Australia. In 1955
John was transferred to Melbourne to spend
what turned out to be the last 22 years of his
banking career.
Following his retirement from the ANZ bank
John received a proposal that he agreed to take
on. This was his appointment as inaugural Chief
Executive Officer of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver
Jubilee Trust for Young Australians, a post that
John held for seven years. John had special
memories of his 40 minutes introducing young
recipients of the award to the Queen, a Garden
Party that he and Mary attended at Buckingham
Palace and a number of meetings with the Prince
of Wales who was the Trust Patron.
John’s voluntary adventure was to another
part of the world. He was keenly aware as a lad
that his father had sung at a concert held as
a farewell to Robert Falcon Scott before Scott
departed for his expedition in Antarctica. So at
the age of 85, John flew to Buenos Aires, took
passage by ship to the Antarctic Peninsula,
donned his thermals, rode in the rubber ducky,
climbed onto the ice and took great photos of the
penguins, which he said smelt like rotten fish!
At the end of his war diary in 1945 John wrote
“With sincere thankfulness in my heart for God’s
blessings, guidance, and continual protection
during these past years”. I am sure that, right to
the end, some 60 years later, John would have
expressed these same sentiments.