Memoirs - Page 16
We - though quite different ourselves - were very much in the same mould as the other neighbourhood kids (you know, I cannot recall too many of them as being girls!). We were in and out of small (social and adventure - one had to more "invent" situations in those days) gangs which used to pursue "serious" territorial wars. I do remember that the enemy, sometimes, did have female warriors as I actually met up with one - by then a mild and jolly woman - many years later in Canberra. We were both fair haired (his with a definite tendency to the red), fair skinned and freckled-faced-almost Ginger Meggs look-a-likes - so not terribly obtrusive.
By Christmas 1948, we were fatherless - me 14 and he 11. Ashamed, as I am, to think it - let alone say it - I cannot recall any overwhelming sense of loss in his sudden passing and, despite my age, I believe that I really had no conception at all of just what it meant to us or to our mother. I had completed my schooling (I could not, in the circumstances, go on) with the Intermediate Certificate and the NSW Public Service entrance examination, in which I'd performed unexpectedly poorly in the former and very well in the latter and duly sought and scored placement in the junior clerical ranks in the Service, joining the Department of Agriculture in February,1949.
Bill Dwyer - 1947
The Chief Personnel Officer - one Cyril WEARNE - became my mentor and guide (a much needed father figure) who directed the course of my career development. He had me selected as the bright, new youngster contemplating a full time career in the Public Service, resulting in my thoughtful, awed face being depicted on the front (see copy) of a recruitment brochure titled "When I Leave School?" which circulated around the State and beyond. He pressed and encouraged me to undertake (and complete) the standard P.S. promotion exams - Reg's 116, 119 & 122 - which I did in record time being, I believe, the youngest - at the time - ever to do so. He also encouraged me to further my formal education at every opportunity and this led me to take on a shorthand and typing course at the SYDNEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE from which I emerged, in due time, as not only one of the few male graduates in the year (indeed, I was the only male in my class of thirty odd students) but also a proficiency prize winner in typing.
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Taken in june 1950 for the 'When I leave school?' photo shoot |
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