PATRON ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - Wix.com

Issue No. 75 Incorporating RAASC – RAE Tn - RACT 7 February 2012

PATRON

Brigadier Jeff Wilkinson AM, Representative Colonel Commandant / Colonel Commandant Eastern Region

Royal Australian Corps of Transport

YOUR COMMITTEE

President: Peter White

RMB 25 Wambina Rd., Matcham. 2250

Phone (02) 43676988 (H) Email: [email protected]

Vice President

Bob Aley

19 Rhodes Ave, Naremburn NSW 2065

Phone: 9439 6314 Mobile: 0412 344 155

Email: [email protected]

Secretary: Tom Nicol Unit 17, Furlough House, Albert St.

Narrabeen, NSW 2101

Phone: (02) 99132725 (H)

Fax: (02) 9913 2725


Treasurer: Mike Cunneen

27 Leicester St. Epping NSW 2121 Phone: (02) 9876 6969

Fax: (02) 9614 0686

Mobile: 0411 639 317 Email: [email protected]

Records Officer & Asst Treasurer:

Robbie Duncan OAM

9 Parkcrest Pl, Kenthurst NSW 2156

Phone: 02 96541589 (H)

Social Member:

Rod Howarth 56 Malsbury Rd., Normanhurst 2076

Phone: (02) 9489 3374 (H)

Mobile: 0417 688 429 Email: [email protected]

Members:

John Neenan - Property

Phone: (02) 9665 4911 (H)

Greg Butler Phone: 0419 205 157


Chris FitzGerald - Newsletter Editor Phone: (02) 94818671 (H)


ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

SUNDAY 4TH

MARCH 2012

The Annual General Meeting of the Royal Australian Corps of Transport

Association in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory will be

held at 10.00 am on Sunday, 4th

March 2012 at the Blue Gum Hotel, 55

Pacific Highway (corner of Unwin Road) Waitara. All members of the

Association are encouraged to attend. Apologies and proposed agenda items

should be notified to the Secretary by Wednesday 29th

February 2012.

Signed

Tom Nichol

Secretary

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

I would like to encourage every eligible member of the Association to

consider attending the AGM and having a say in how the Association is run.

At present we survive on the efforts of a few committed individuals,

bolstered last year by Bob Aley and Greg Butler who kindly agreed to

become involved at the AGM. The energy and fresh viewpoint they brought

to the Committee has been a real boon this past year.

Also, could I emphasise that the Association is for all ranks, currently

serving and former serving members. We encourage the involvement of

everyone in the running of the Association and participation in our activities.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the AGM this year.

Kind regards and Par Oneri

Peter White

President

mailto:[email protected]







InteRACTion No. 75 – 7 February 2012

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Annual Harbour Cruise and Luncheon – 20 November 2011

Beautiful weather, good company, an excellent menu and the delights of Sydney Harbour combined to make the

Association’s 2012 Annual Luncheon Harbour Cruise one of the best yet. President Peter White and Mary welcomed

members aboard the Captain Cook Cruises Flagship, the Sydney 2000, for an afternoon of fine food, good company and

very impressive scenery.

Skilful negotiating by Social Director Rod Howarth saw a return to the upper deck function room this year, with its

more spacious facilities and wider views.

As always, Association Patron Brigadier Jeff Wilkinson travelled up from Canberra for the event, as did RACT Head of

Corps Brigadier Andrew Bottrell CSC & Bar; their effort to join us was especially appreciated by those attending.

Paul Asbury made the trip from Brisbane especially for the day, hopefully starting a trend that will see more people

from other states joining us for this premier event in the future.

The Harbour Cruise remains the premier event in our social calendar and the following photographs can only hint as to

the reasons for this.

Ralph Pridmore entertains the ladies prior to boarding. While Paul Asbury from Brisbane does likewise

The chaps arrive ready for action And Denis Foster, ever the English gentleman, escorts some ladies


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Once aboard, the Head of Corps led some prayers Peter White managed to get a smile out of Mike Cullen

Jeff Wilkinson passed on some serious stuff And Rod Howarth led the Karaoke

Treasurer Mike Cunneen seemed happy with the function

balance sheet And everyone else had a good time


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WE BID FAREWELL – LEST WE FORGET

It is with considerable sadness that we bid farewell to the following people who members of the Association

may know:

Douglas (Neil) Paton of Queensland, 20 October 2011, aged 73.

Kevin Gallash of Adelaide who passed away early January 2012 aged 81.

John Gillespie of Randwick NSW, 14 November 2011, aged 76.

George Miller of New South Wales, 7 November 2011.

Jack Shears of Rockhampton Queensland, 2 August 2011.

Ross Adams of Queensland, 15 September 2011.

Morris (Blue) Corkhill of Penrith NSW, 8 January 2012.

Eddie Egan of Caloundra Queensland, April 2011.

Bernie Dunford, 24 February 2011 aged 75.

Mick Hartis of Queensland, 7 December 2011.

Lurus John (Lu) Howarth, 16 December 2011, 88 Years.

Margaret, wife of Association stalwart Bill Strutton of Castle Hill, 8 January 2012.

Also, Sir Donald Dunstan of Adelaide, 15 October 2011, aged 88.

Our condolences are offered to all the families and friends of our former comrades and friends.

SICK LIST

The following have spent some time recently in hospital and we wish them a speedy recovery:

Jock Tarres, Peninsula Private Hospital Kippa-ring Queensland.

John Spruce, Calagry Martyr Hospital, Newcastle NSW.


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Lieutenant-colonel John Milton Gillespie

John Gillespie was born in the Queensland city of Maryborough on 6 June 1935. He attended a number of schools,

including Brisbane State High School. He enlisted in the Australian Regular Army (ARA) in May 1953 and entered the

Officer Cadet School (OCS) at Portsea in July 1953, from where he graduated on 19 December 1953 as a second-lieutenant

in the Royal Australian Army Service Corps (RAASC).

The Army List (commonly known as the “Stud Book”) shows that he was on the strength of the RAASC School for all of

1954, so must have been posted into an establishment position after completing the Corps introductory course in May. Over

the course of the year he would have met many of the Corps characters as they filtered through the various training Wings.

Such exposure would have imbued in him a greater awareness of the very nature of the Corps.

From December 1954 he served in the 20th National Service Training Battalion, during which time he qualified as a

parachutist. In August 1955 he was posted as the Cadre Officer in Headquarters Southern Command Troops RAASC.

In August 1956, his Air Dispatch (AD) career started with an attachment to the Far East Land Force (FARELF) as a

platoon commander in the 55th Company RASC (AD) in Kuala Lumpur. (The Stud Book shows the posting as the

Australian Visitors and Observers Unit, Malaya.) That job involved flying duties in Malaya and Borneo. In April 1957 he

returned to Australia and a few jobs in Southern Command and Tasmania..

In August 1965 he started a two-year posting in the UK, where he formed an Air Dispatch Training Wing, manned by a

small team of experienced Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) warrant and non-commissioned officers, to train RCT air

dispatchers and all arms air loaders. He returned to Australia in September 1967.

From 12 November 1968, he was the Officer Commanding 5 Coy RAASC in South Viet Nam (SVN) where, apart from

other sub-units, Detachment 176 AD Coy was under command. Exactly a year later he returned to Australia, to attend Staff

College, Queenscliff, in 1970.

After Staff College and a staff appointment at HQ Eastern Command, and having become a foundation member of the

Royal Australian Corps of Transport (RACT) in June 1973, he was posted as OC 176 AD Coy from October 1973 to August

1974, replacing Major David Hannell. During that time the unit moved from Wallgrove to Penrith.

In August 1974 John was promoted to lieutenant-colonel to command what was to become, a few months later, the 2nd

Transport and Movements Group.

In October 1978, he resigned after 25 years of dedicated service, and took up a position as the NSW Manager for AAT

Coaches. About three years later, he opened his own business as a migration consultant, where he established a reputation

for successful, ethical and compassionate dealings with his clients and the migration bureaucracy.

John was a passenger on a bus in early November when the bus stopped abruptly, throwing him to the floor and breaking

his collar-bone. On presenting himself for treatment, the medical staff advised him, after some tests, that he had a serious

heart condition, of which, apparently, he had been unaware. They decided, however, that he was well enough to go home,

and he was waiting to do so while some home care was being arranged. Sadly, he collapsed and died, while still in the

hospital, on 14 November.

John was something of an enigma. Few people were close enough to him to know anything of his personal life story. He

seemed to want to hide his real nature by presenting one of several personae he carried with him at all times, like clubs in a

golf bag, from which he could select to confuse deliberately anyone with whom e was in contact at the time. One persona,

for example, was that of an avowed agnostic, and yet he frequently introduced moral and spiritual subjects into his

conversations. Curiously, one of his closest friends is a Catholic priest, Father Paul Stenhouse MSC PhD, whom John had

John Gillespie in 1975


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selected to conduct his funeral. He had also appointed Tony Fairbrother as his executor. Between them, they gave John a

memorable send off.

The very special service was held at the West Chapel, Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park at Matraville on 18 November.

Afterwards, the Matraville RSL provided an excellent venue for the wake.

Attending from the Corps: our Representative Colonel Commandant, Brigadier Jeff Wilkinson, Captain Ben Aldridge and

WO2 Darren Rubie of 176 AD Sqn, Vic Smith, Ken and Dawn Duncan, Ian Henderson, Allan Bewley, Phil Cameron, Bob

Leedow, John Neenan, Ian Brooks, and Jeff and Tony Fairbrother and their wives, Judy and Roslyn. It was good have the

two 176 blokes in uniform as a fitting tribute to someone who had been a stalwart of the Air Disp atch sector of our Corps.

Acknowledgement: Much of the detail in the foregoing item came from the “Stud Book” and an unidentified Air Dispatch

author who was writing, apparently, around 2008.

John Neenan

December 2011

Major Lurus John (Lu) Howarth, MVO. Father of Rod.

A.I.F. NX10733

A.R.A. 237637

Died 16 December 2011 Aged 88 Years

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