2/3 AHS CENTAUR ASSOCIATION 2 PTE STANLEY BOND, VX75733, Years Later Peggy Came to Visit My Nan
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2/3 A.H.S. CENTAUR ASSOCIATION (INC.) Executive Committee: All Correspondence to: The Secretary President: Mr Richard Jones P.O. Box 296 Secretary: Mrs Jan Thomas OAM BOWRAVILLE NSW 2449 Treasurer: Mr Anthony P Bracken email: [email protected] [email protected] www.centaur.org.au Editor: Jan Thomas NEWSLETTER MAY 2011 02 6564 8404 2011 MAY MEMORIAL SERVICE TIMES THE ASSOCIATION CONTINUES Please note change of date at some locations New members could be forgiven for thinking that the Brisbane, Qld Association was formed to find the Centaur, as the Finding Sydney Foundation was formed to find HMAS Saturday 14th May 2011 at 11.30am , St Andrew’s Anglican Church, 673 Lutwyche Rd Lutwyche 4030. Guest speaker: Mrs Sydney, and that now Centaur has been discovered and Janet Earnshaw OAM, niece of Pte William Lawson. Brisbane commemorated, our work is done. Girls Grammar, Brisbane Boy’s College and cadets of TS Centaur Nothing could be further from the truth. The in attendance. Refreshments in the Church Hall. R.S.V.P. by Association was formed in 1999 when neither the 4th May to Miss Pixie Annat, P.O. Box 68, Kelvin Grove 4059, technology nor the political will to find the Centaur was or email [email protected]. available, and the thought barely a vague hope in the Caloundra, Qld minds of some members that perhaps one day it might Saturday 14 May 2011 at 11am at the Memorial in Centaur Park. be found. For many members, the whereabouts of the Children from local schools will lay an individual flower on each Centaur was not of prime concern. Those we lost were name on the Walkway on behalf of relatives. Anyone wishing to safe, as were all lost sailors since time immemorial, in lay a wreath please see the Secretary Dick Alchin or Erica Davy Jones Locker. Costigan before the Service begins. Refreshments at RSL. But false claims over the years shattered that security Concord, Sydney and brought distress to still grieving families who were Thursday 12 May 2011 at 10.30 am 113 AGH Memorial Chapel, Concord Hospital. RSVP 5 May 2011 to Melissa Puglisi at powerless to prevent them. The finding of HMAS [email protected] or telephone 02 9767 5356 Sydney was the catalyst that turned a vague hope into a plea for urgent action. Point Danger, Qld Friday 13 May 2011 10am at the Memorial. The Service is Our pleas struck a nerve in the national and state conducted by the students (weather permitting otherwise in the consciousness and both governments took up our cause assembly hall, Centaur Primary School, Eucalyptus Drive Banora as their own, with spectacular results. Last year was a Point.) and will include the unveiling of a miniature replica of the phenomenal year for anyone connected in any way with Centaur Plaque by Gold Coast City Council. RSVP 07 5524 9655 the Centaur. Melbourne, Vic. But our work continues. We will now go back to doing Sunday 15 May 2011 9am in the ANZAC Memorial Chapel, what we do best—honouring those we lost and Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, entry via Gate 9. Enquiries supporting those who lost them. Our full rationale is on Robert Winther (03) 9496 2324. Refreshments will be served at the last page of all out Newsletters. the Darebin RSL Sub-Branch at 402 Bell Street, Preston. You can help. Canberra ACT If you find any memorial anywhere honouring either the Friday 13 May 2011 2pm . Assemble in the forecourt of the Hall Centaur or any of its personnel such as in a church or of Remembrance for a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown community hall, park or garden, please let us know. We Soldier, followed by placing of poppies on names on the Honour will add it to our database and make it known. Roll., and refreshments at own expense at the Terrace Café. Richard Jones will display a replica of the Centaur Plaque and If you find any memorial or Centaur-related grave in explain its significance. RSVP by 7 May Jan Thomas disrepair, let us know and we can alert the appropriate authority. ( See Mary Perrottet’s story p2 ) (02) 6564 8404, or [email protected]. If you hear of any artefacts purported to come from Let us know if and when you are attending Services and we will ask Centaur in any private collection, ( see the Avro Anson Association members to look out for you. 02 6564 8404 or Propeller story p.5 ) or in a museum and you are not [email protected] Please make yourself and your Centaur satisfied with the provenance, please also let us know. connection known to organizers or our wreath-layer . (See the Union Jack story p6 ) 2/3 AHS CENTAUR ASSOCIATION 2 PTE STANLEY BOND, VX75733, Years later Peggy came to visit my Nan. She had married 2/12th Field Ambulance and brought her twin boys. She confided to Nan she had never got over Stan’s death. They shared their grief. Contributed by Lynette Denison, niece . My Uncle, Stanley Robert Bond, was When Stan first joined he played the piano for the troops born on the 31 December, 1921, but as he did not want to take a life. But later he felt he wasn't when he enlisted in the militia on 16 doing enough so he became an Ambulance Driver. The rest is history . February 1938, he gave his birth year as 1919. As many patriotic young men My Nan sadly outlived all her children and died at 93 did in those times, he changed his birth date to serve his country. He had turned 17, two months before enlisting. Stan was Mary Perrottet’s story 21 when he died, serving his country aboard "The THE GRAVE OF SR ELLEN SAVAGE, GM. Centaur", a non-combatant vessel on a mercy mission to set up field medical units in New Guinea. He was one of Mary Perrottet was looking for her grandparents grave in the 268 brave, compassionate medical personnel who went the Catholic Monumental Section of the Macquarie Park down with the ship on 14th May 1943. Stan was an Cemetery in Sydney when she came across that of Sr Ambulance Driver in the 2/12th Field Ambulance. His Ellen Savage GM. father had been in the civilian Ambulance Service, but he Mary was distressed at the poor state of the grave and had TB and was too sick to join the forces. determined to bring it to someone’s attention. “I just I was born three years after my Uncle Stan died, his first- think it’s terrible that a genuine Australian hero lies in a born niece, never to experience knowing this very special grave which is not an appropriate recognition of her”, man, but sensing his gentle presence around me from Mary wrote. childhood and throughout my later life. Mary’s parents had been friends of the Savage family, and I do not know all of Stan’s background, as it was a very Mary herself knew Nell’s sisters, Wyn and Kathy, now painful subject for my mother and grandmother to talk deceased. She also met Bill Records (USS Mugford) about. The day my Nan was notified of Stan’s death, she when he was staying with them on his visit for the 50th did not show emotion nor did she cry. Two days later she anniversary of the sinking of the Centaur. collapsed. Part of her had died with her eldest son. She wrote to the NSW RSL which conducted its own Over the years these are the things I learnt about my Uncle research and discovered that the CWGC looks after the Stan. Many people said Stan was too good for this world, bronze plaque but the concrete covering of the grave was or an Angel on earth. He had been a salesperson, but his privately built and outside their jurisdiction. main love was the piano, (along with other musical Mr Don Rowe, State President of the RSL said they were instruments). He played beautifully and was the pianist in a sympathetic to the cause but were not able to intervene little known band that was later to become the ABC without the express permission of the family. Orchestra. His favourite piece was Danny Boy This song was banned from being played in our family (my Nan also Mary had lost contact with the Savage family and wrote played the piano), and the radio switched off whenever this to the Association for help. We passed all the was on, because my Mum and Nan would be in tears. I information Mary had acquired to the Queensland have only just recently been able to appreciate and listen to Premier’s Department and they contacted Sr Savage’s Danny Boy myself, as I also felt their pain. niece, who thanked us and contacted Mr Rowe direct. Stan met his beloved Peggy teaching her the piano in Our thanks to Mary for instigating the research and for Brunswick, Melbourne.. They became engaged. My Mum brining the matter to our attention, and, hopefully, to a (his only sister, younger than he was), was always included satisfactory conclusion. when they went to the pictures and on outings as they were all very close. Stan wanted to marry Peggy before he enlisted, but he didn't so he could send his pay to his Mum The Claydons from New (my Nan). His Dad had T.B., as did his sister, my Mum. Zealand, L - R James, Mike and Mark, at the Dinner on Stan also had a very young brother Keith.