A Man of Integrity
I married William's grandson, Ronald Masters and I had been previously married and had a son Brad. William was kind, caring and had a huge heart. He welcomed me openly and told his family that we were now part of the family and his daughter Shirley honoured his edict as well as she could.
Willy (as he was known) was a retired Blacksmith but was not in good shape when i met him in 1978 and he became ill and ended up being hospitalised in permanent care in Katanning, WA while we lived at the back of his home in Kojonup. He and his wife Emily had granted us their block to build our home and we had a gate between our houses so we could help.
He loved being alone chopping wood, preparing chooks for meals, caring for wildlife, chopping wood and doing lots of things in the garden, at times with Emily, when she was not off doing red Cross activities or volunteering in the community.
When he was in care it was heartbreaking and he was very distressed at only having four walls to view, not enough visitors (it was a half hour drive from Kojonup) and I found it very difficult to help him find anything worthwhile to pass his time in the hospital until the day he died.
Many years later, we were gifted all the family photographs of the family and I came across Willy's War Diary/Booklet of his job orders which contained his beautiful cursive script, in pencil (with drawings) of his plans on how to measure, create and plant mines and the processes undertaken for each one. He also had collected many photographs of his fellow soldiers as he was a Rat of Tobruk. We are now in the process of creating a homage to him for his great grandson's (Ben and David) and his Grandaughter Kate - if they would like one... and to then gift a copy of his transcripts and collection to the Canberra War memorial for preservation in honour of his Service.
Submitted 27 August 2025
by Robyn Cummings
