The news spread quickly through the Stewart clan. Andy’s health, fragile for the past decade, had taken a turn for the worse. He was having chest pains and difficulty breathing.
And with his body weak, his mind tormented him. Hallucinations took him back to the war. Gallipoli. Pozieres. Hollebeke.
Jane was at Andy’s bedside, but she felt helpless. She could only watch as the war separated her from Andy again.
Andy’s condition deteriorated and he was transferred to Ballarat. Then, five days before Anzac Day 1960, Andy died.
Anzac Day dawned cold and grey that year.
Featured image: ‘Original Anzac Passes On’, Riponshire Advocate,30 April 1960. State Library of Victoria
Jane Duncan (bottom picture, front row, second from right) continued to be actively involved in the Beaufort community in her sixties. By 1950 Jane was one of the few World War One wives on the Legion of Ex-Servicemen and Women, Ladies’ Auxiliary.
Featured image: 1950 ‘PROMINENT WOMEN OF BEAUFORT’, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 – 1954), 13 December, p. 27. Newspaper article found in Trove and reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Australia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103994632 [Accessed 18 Dec 2016].
The Riponshire Advocate declared the Back to Beaufort Centenary weekend a resounding success. All but one page of the 9 January edition of the newspaper reported the homecoming celebrations and sporting events.
Approximately 200 people visited the town. Some Beaufort residents would have noted that the number was well down on the 1,000 visitors who attended the previous ‘back to’ in 1927. But the Riponshire Advocate was certain that it was quality, not quantity, that was the measure of success.
The consensus of opinion among the visitors was that the whole of the celebrations were really delightful and thoroughly enjoyable, and they were loud in their praises of the excellent work done by the organising committee and its secretary and president.
Riponshire Advocate 9 January 1937
As secretary, Andy Duncan must have felt gratified by the response.
Andy set up a display of old photographs of Beaufort, and also a fine collection of walking sticks made from Mt. Cole forest timber, belonging to local forester Mr Thomas Derham Bailes.
Mr Duncan also displayed a fine inlaid wooden box and tray, made by him while a patient at the Caulfield Military Hospital
Riponshire Advocate 9 January 1937
Andy Duncan’s “fine inlaid wooden box”, made while an inpatient at the Caulfield Military HospitalAndy’s wooden trayWhile Andy Duncan received special mention for his work on the Back to Beaufort homecoming, his wife Jane would have to make do with being one of the Committee’s ‘loyal ladies’. Riponshire Advocate 9 January 1937
Andy’s work as honorary secretary had proved his bona fides to his new home town. In the next few years he would be nominated for committee positions at the Beaufort Mechanics’ Institute, the Cemetery Trust and the Thistle Club.
Sources
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 9 January 1937. State Library of Victoria
1927 ‘”BACK TO BEAUFORT” CELEBRATIONS.’, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 16 April, p. 11. [ONLINE] Available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3849478 [Accessed 17 July 2016]
Featured Image: Riponshire Advocate front page 26 December 1936. State Library of Victoria
In 1936 the town of Beaufort prepared for a Back to Beaufort Centenary Homecoming. It was the centenary of explorer Major Thomas Mitchell‘s expedition passing through the district, although the township itself was somewhat younger, built after the discovery of gold at nearby Yam Holes Creek in 1854.
Homecoming events came into fashion in Australia at the end of the First World War. By then many towns were old enough that their residents could look back to pioneer days and celebrate how far they had come, but were still young enough that original settlers or their children could attend the festivities.
Despite their retrospective nature, “back to” gatherings were considered innovative and progressive. They could raise a town’s profile, boost the local economy and draw former residents back “from every state in the Commonwealth”, as the Geelong Advertiser put it. Victorian towns embraced the trend with great enthusiasm.
Andy Duncan was a member of the Back to Beaufort committee, and instrumental in organising the event. As honorary secretary he wrote to former residents, inviting them to return for the Christmas weekend. He was in touch with the Beaufort-in-Melbourne Club about arrangements for their 91 members to join the celebrations.
‘Back to Beaufort.’ The Argus, Melbourne, 20 October 1936, p.10. Reproduction of newspaper article found in Trove. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
Andy also managed the homecoming budget, which included seeing what might be donated or discounted. It kept him busy:
liaising with the Railways Department on sharing the costs of promotional posters for display in metropolitan and Beaufort district stations;
developing an advertising plan and keeping tabs on revenue generated from advertising in the souvenir booklet;
negotiating truck rental to transport visitors to the picnic ground at Mount Cole;
borrowing flags and decorations from Melbourne using his Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League connections, then seeking council approval to decorate the town.
A letter was read from the Ripon Shire Council, stating that they had no objection to flags and welcome home signs being hung across the main street, but would not allow any sign to be placed on the band rotunda
Riponshire Advocate 5 December 1936
At the start of December preparations gathered momentum. Andy’s wife Jane joined the committee. She helped arrange a social for Christmas night, and hem the welcome signs Andy had organised for each end of town, the main street and the railway station.
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 5 December 1936. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 12 December 1936. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 19 December 1936. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 26 December 1936. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 9 January 1937. State Library of Victoria
1917 ‘”Ballarat Homecoming.”‘, The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 – 1933), 12 March, p. 9. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20170897 [Accessed 17 July 2016]
1917 ‘Maldon.’, The Ballarat Courier (Vic. : 1869 – 1878; 1914 – 1918), 9 April, p. 6. (Daily.) [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74565656 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1917 ‘Colac.’, The Ballarat Courier (Vic. : 1869 – 1878; 1914 – 1918), 22 November, p. 5. (DAILY.) [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73335655 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1918 ‘Ararat Home-Coming.’, Ararat Chronicle and Willaura and Lake Bolac Districts Recorder (Vic. : 1914 – 1918), 10 September, p. 2. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154295833 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1918 ‘Echuca.’, The Ballarat Courier (Vic. : 1869 – 1878; 1914 – 1918), 30 September, p. 6. (Daily.) [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73539347 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1921 ‘”Back to Creswick.”‘, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 12 August, p. 8. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4675464 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1922 ‘Back-to-Geelong.’, Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1926), 1 April, p. 4. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165967544 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1922 ‘Back to Bairnsdale.’, The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), 6 May, p. 14. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205043421 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1923 ‘Back to Hamilton (Vic.)’, Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1926), 9 February, p. 5. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166004466 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1926 ‘Home-Coming.’, The Maitland Weekly Mercury (NSW : 1894 – 1931), 28 August, p. 11. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127448939 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1927 ‘”Back to Ballarat.”‘, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 5 February, p. 22. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3836383 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1927 ‘”Back to Wangaratta.”‘, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 30 March, p. 19. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3846421 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1927 ‘”Back to Beaufort” Celebrations.’, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 16 April, p. 11. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3849478 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1930 ‘”Back to Warrnambool.”‘, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 11 January, p. 19. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4061884 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1932 ‘Back to Castlemaine.’, The Horsham Times (Vic. : 1882 – 1954), 18 November, p. 4. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72614743 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1932 ‘Back to Ararat.’, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 29 December, p. 11. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4516758 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1935 ‘”Homecoming” at Talbot’, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 23 April, p. 4. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12231898 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1936 ‘Back to Beaufort’, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 20 October, p. 10. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11927205 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1936 ‘Beaufort’s Centenary Homecoming.’, Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953), 22 October, p. 2. (Evening.) [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64274059 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1937 ‘”Back to Orbost”‘, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 27 February, p. 20. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11974087 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
1937 ‘Back to Bendigo.’, The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), 24 February, p. 9. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206192339 [Accessed 17 July 2016].
Clark, I, 2015. Yam Holes to Beaufort. Ballarat, Victoria, Australia: Waller & Chester.
Featured image: Beaufort railway station 2015. From the author’s collection. Copyright Andrew Palmer.
Andy was not a movie-goer. His routine was to walk to the Beaufort Mechanics Institute library and borrow a good book, perhaps an Agatha Christie mystery, and bring it home to read in his favourite armchair. This quiet escape into a book had become a habit when he served in India, and had helped sustain him as a Prisoner of War in Germany.
So it was quite unusual when Andy decided to go to the pictures. It was 1959 and he wanted to see ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’.
The movie was showing at the Regent Theatre in Ballarat.
Travelling from Beaufort to see the movie took a bit of organising. Andy telephoned his grandson Robert in Ballarat and asked him to make the arrangements. As well as the seat reservations at the Regent, Robert needed to book tickets for the Beaufort-Ballarat train.
Robert took the train to Beaufort, stayed overnight at the Duncan home, then travelled back to Ballarat with his grandfather.
Their seats were in the dress circle, near the front and on the aisle, so that Andy could get up and move about, if need be. The film was over two and a half hours long, and Andy had not been in a cinema for at least twenty years.
It is a gripping war story of outstanding personal courage, and undoubtedly one of the outstanding films of the past year.
It is however, emotionally exhausting, reviving after more than a decade of peace the stark realities of jungle warfare.
Extract from The Canberra Times, 5 February 1958
Andy seemed a little shaken when he left the theatre. Perhaps it was partly because his first Technicolor cinema experience was overwhelming, but the film must have brought his own Prisoner of War memories to the surface.
He did not say much, except to admire Alec Guiness’ portrayal of the British colonel. This character, an officer who refuses to allow his officers to work even though it means solitary confinement and punishment, must have resonated with Andy, who had refused to work for the Germans in 1918.
Sources
1958 ‘Gripping Realism In Fine Columbia Film’, The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995), 5 February, p. 3. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91257015 [Accessed 5 Jun 2016].
1958 ‘New Film Releases’, The Australian Women’s Weekly (1933 – 1982), 26 March, p. 82.[ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51597723 [Accessed 5 Jun 2016].
Featured image: 1959 ‘Advertising’, Western Herald (Bourke, NSW : 1887 – 1970), 3 April, p. 9. Newspaper article found in Trove and reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Australia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103994632 [Accessed 5 Jun 2016].
Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in. That’s what Andy wanted Ern to understand. Ern had never been to war; he had no right to question Andy’s sacrifice.
But Ern wasn’t listening. As the two men split logs for firewood at the Duncan home, Ern held forth on the futility of war. Then he said that Andy had been stupid to enlist.
That was enough for Andy to throw down his axe and raise his fists.
Jane heard the fight from her kitchen and rushed outside to separate the two men. She shouted at her brother Ern to leave and never come back. Ern did just that. He soon left Beaufort and had no further contact with Andy and Jane. He returned to the town years later and lived close by in the next street, but did not even attend Jane’s funeral.
Andy and Jane Duncan, Ern and Lucy Stewart, whose friendship ended abruptly in the 1940s. Copyright Andrew Palmer
Jane had always been close to her younger brother, and Andy had quickly warmed to him. Rene was like the daughter that Ern and his wife Lucy never had. When Ern was working near Shepparton in Northern Victoria, he had used his railways connections to send the Duncans damaged cans of fruit from the Shepparton Preserving Company. In the first half of the 1940s Andy and Jane had taken at least two trips to visit Ern and Lucy at Toolamba.
Those friendships came to an abrupt end at the woodpile.
Andy’s woodpile was in some ways a symbol of his determination not to let his war injuries get the better of him. When he was not confined to bed he would take to physical activities with a vengeance, as if making up for lost time. The woodpile was exactly the wrong place for Ern to question the worth of Andy’s military service.
What caused Jane to banish her brother? Would she have ordered Ern away if Andy was winning the fight? Perhaps she rounded the corner of the house to see Ern with the upper hand. Perhaps she feared for Andy’s health, and saw Ern sending Andy on another hospital stay.
Sources
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 22 Sep1944. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 11 Aug 1945. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 25 Aug 1945. State Library of Victoria
Featured Image: Andy and Jane Duncan’s grandson Robert in the Duncan family yard circa 1945. In the background Andy’s woodpile stretches towards the Ararat Road.
At the Beaufort Thistle Club meeting in December 1942 Andy Duncan announced that he would be stepping down as secretary. It had been a hard year for him health-wise, and Thistle Club activity had declined through wartime austerity measures. Travel by car to recreational events was discouraged, as was spending on anything other than basic needs or war funds.
The 1941 Thistle Club Boxing Day sports had not been well-attended, and by February 1942 there was concern that the club might not continue. Andy had offered to take a 50% reduction in his £15 secretary’s salary.
Andy probably felt responsible for the difficulties confronting the club. Perhaps he could see that his health would not allow him to put in the extra effort required to keep the club running.
He asked that the club have a successor ready to take over in time for the annual meeting in January.
The chief said that was a bombshell, and the members regretted to hear of his decision
Riponshire Advocate 5 December 1942
The club members must have worked on Andy over the Christmas period and encouraged him to continue as secretary. At the annual meeting Andy’s name was put forward for the role, but he declined the nomination.
Andy’s stepping down as Thistle Club secretary caused some nervousness at the Beaufort Cemetery Trust, where Andy also held the position of secretary.
A week after the Thistle Club meeting the Trust met. The trustees quickly moved that a bonus of £3/3/- be passed to the secretary, and it was minuted that Andy was “Very capable, attentive, courteous, obliging, and highly efficient”. The thanks of the Trust were due to him, and the trustees expressed the hope that Andy “would long continue in the role”.
Andy had not, apparently, given any indication that he was about to step down from his position at the Cemetery Trust. He continued as secretary into 1943. The trustees no doubt congratulated themselves on succeeding in retaining Andy where the Thistle Club had failed.
Sources
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 3 Jan 1942. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 7 Feb 1942. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 9 May 1942. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 5 Dec 1942. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 23 Jan 1943. State Library of Victoria
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 30 Jan 1943. State Library of Victoria
1942 ‘PRIME MINISTER ON NEED FOR RECREATION’, The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), 9 January, p. 2. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205278807 [Accessed 3 April 2016].
1942 ‘PRIME MINISTER’S ATTITUDE ON SPORT’, Sporting Globe (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 – 1954), 18 March, p. 1. (Edition 2). [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article178090717 [Accessed 3 April 2016].
1942 ‘SAVING FOR WAR’, The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), 16 April, p. 2. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205274757 [Accessed 3 April 2016].
Featured Image: Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 3 Jan 1942, p. 1. State Library of Victoria
7 January 1942 saw the town of Beaufort battered by the worst dust storm in memory.
By mid-morning the temperature had already reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32° C). Strong, unpredictable gusts of wind were making outdoor work more and more difficult.
Did Jane Duncan have Eurambeen homestead laundry drying on the line that morning? The day had started out as good drying weather, but changed into something more worrying. She would have run to her six clotheslines as the wind threatened to whip the sheets away.
Once back inside the house, perhaps Jane and her daughter Rene began the major task of folding six rows of laundry. As the wind rose to gale force Jane would no doubt have been relieved that she had brought the washing in, just in time.
The gale continued for the rest of the day.
One minute the air would be perfectly calm, the next a gust of wind would race from zero to almost 50 miles an hour
Extract from ‘Queer Weather.’, The Age, 9 January 1942
Within a few hours huge, red dust clouds rolled in from the northwest and swallowed the town. People covered their faces with handkerchiefs and struggled against the gale. It was hard to see more than a few metres ahead through the thick dust.
Andy, Jane, Rene and Jane’s father John Stewart would have spent the day sheltered inside their small miner’s cottage. The wind whistled through any gaps in the weatherboards, bringing with it the red dust. The windows rattled. Debris from fallen trees and damaged buildings clattered and crashed against the cottage’s tin roof.
The Stewart family home, Beaufort, in 2015. From the author’s collection. Copyright Andrew Palmer.
The heat and wind sparked bushfires across the state. Not far away Ararat district firefighters battled to save four townships around Lake Bolac. Forestry Commission officials were vigilant for outbreaks on Crown land. Perhaps this was on Andy Duncan’s mind, too, because of his work for the Forestry Commission at Mount Cole.
The storm reached its peak near nightfall and continued to batter the town until around 11pm. Then the wind dropped, the dust subsided and everything was still. The temperature remained over 90 degrees.
Finally around midnight a cool change blew through, bringing rain. The red Mallee dust that had choked and blinded now became red spatter on cars and buildings, and mud on the shoes of those who ventured outside.
The Stewart cottage had weathered the storm without any significant damage, but Jane’s beloved garden would not have survived.
The day will be long remembered as the gale swept through huge trees and the snapping and crashing branches were observed. The presentable gardens of citizens showed a “scorched earth” appearance after the storm had subsided. Housewives yesterday had the busiest time for many years; it was their big “at home” day as they were kept steadily cleaning up inches of dust inside and outside their homes
Extract from ‘A Day of Dust and Wind.’, The Horsham Times, 9 January 1942
Sources
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 10 January 1942. State Library of Victoria
Japan’s entry into the Second World War was not a surprise: as 1941 progressed, Australian newspaper reports of the war in Europe were accompanied more and more by commentary on the possibility of war with Japan. But the attacks on Pearl Harbour and Singapore, and the speed with which Singapore had fallen, shocked Australians.
The most momentous happening in Australia’s history took place this week when a declaration of war was made on Japan … The war has been brought right to our doors and a new phase of the world-wide conflict entered upon.
Extract from ‘At War With Japan.’,Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser, 11 December 1941
For the close-knit Stewart and Duncan families in Beaufort, the war in the Pacific had an immediate impact.
Much as her mother had done in 1914, Rene farewelled her husband just weeks after their wedding. On 15 December 1941 Corporal Ron Palmer left Beaufort to commence full-time garrison duty with the Provost Squadron of the 2nd Australian Motor Division. It would have been some comfort to Rene that Ron was stationed initially in Victoria and not deployed overseas.
Allan Duncan Stewart, Jane’s nephew, was captured by the Japanese at Rabaul, New Guinea, on 23 January 1942. Allan served with the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, and was part of the Lark Force garrison that defended Rabaul. He was held as a Prisoner of War at Rabaul, and forced to labour for the Japanese under harsh conditions.
On 22 June 1942 Allan was one of over a thousand Prisoners of War placed on board the Imperial Japanese Navy ship, Montevideo Maru, for transport to Hainan island. On 1 July the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine, Sturgeon. The Montevideo Maru sank in less than fifteen minutes. All Prisoners of War were reported drowned.
It is likely that the Stewarts spent the rest of the war thinking Allan was a Prisoner of War, and waiting for news of his release. Perhaps they used Andy Duncan’s survival as a POW in the First World War to give them hope, but this would have been tempered by newspaper reports of Japanese atrocities after the fall of Rabaul.
Another relation, Raymond Lowe, was killed in action during the Fall of Singapore on 11 February 1942. Almost exactly ten years earlier, Andy Duncan had been a pall-bearer at the funeral of Raymond’s sister, Madge.
1941 ‘PACIFIC PEACE HANGS IN THE BALANCE, AND— How Strong is Japan?.’, The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946), 1 November, p. 10. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142145363
1941 ‘At War With Japan.’, Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser (NSW : 1898 – 1958), 11 December, p. 3. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134125330
1942 ‘125 SOLDIERS MASSACRED BY JAPANESE.’, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), 10 April, p. 3. [ONLINE] Available at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8241340
‘Montevideo Maru list of prisoners of war and civilian internees on board,’ Montevideo Maru – homepage . 2015. [ONLINE] Available at: http://montevideomaru.naa.gov.au.
Montevideo Maru – sinking of the Montevideo Maru, 1 July 1942. Australian War Memorial. 2015.
NAA: B2458, V21960, VX83702, V087380, PALMER, RONALD ANDREW. National Archives of Australia.
NAA: B883, NGX499, STEWART, ALLAN DUNCAN. National Archives of Australia.
NAA: B883, VX32343, LOWE, RAYMOND. National Archives of Australia.
A hurried wartime wedding was probably not what Rene Duncan had pictured for herself. But necessity and austerity brought about a private ceremony at the Beaufort Methodist Church parsonage.
On 15 November 1941 The Riponshire Advocate reported –
The engagement is announced of Mavis Irene, daughter of Mr and Mrs AS Duncan of Neill Street, Beaufort, and Ronald Andrew, third youngest son of Mr and Mrs A Palmer, of Windermere
And a week later Rene and Ron were married, on 22 November. They celebrated in Beaufort that night with a bowl of cherries.
Rene had first noticed Ron at a raucous ‘tin-kettling’ party and dance for a newlywed couple. Ron was quiet and shy, and new to Beaufort. He had just started work as a grocer’s assistant at the Burrumbeet and Windermere Farmers’ Cooperative, known as “the B and W”.
The B and W was a short walk from the Duncan family home. Rene’s father would have known the manager, as they were both returned soldiers. Rene took her friend Edna Gilligan with her to the Co-operative, two girls going to check out the new grocer’s assistant. While there Rene and Edna bought some boiled lollies. The lollies were stale so the girls took them back to the store, but the replacement bag of lollies Ron sold them was just as stale.
After this inauspicious meeting Rene and Ron started courting.
Ron was from a Windermere farming family. Each week he cycled 20 miles from Windermere to Beaufort to lodge for the week and work at the B and W.
Ron had volunteered for the part-time Citizen Military Force in October 1940, joining the 4th Light Horse regiment. Through 1940 and 1941 Ron underwent training in camps around the Western district of Victoria. When not with his unit, Ron was back in Beaufort or at the Windermere farm. The story goes that the engagement and wedding took place while Ron had a 10-day leave pass.
Ronald Andrew Palmer circa 1940. From the author’s collection. Copyright Andrew Palmer.
Sources:
Riponshire Advocate (Beaufort, Vic.: 1874 – 1994) 15 November 1941. State Library of Victoria
1941 Certificate of Marriage, Methodist Church marriage register no. 18. Beaufort, Victoria, 22 November 1941.
Andrew's Archives 