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Australia

George Edmund Kemp was born on 27 June 1914 at 434 Madeline Street, Carlton (Melbourne). Madeline Street is now known as North Swanston Street and now largely dominated by Melbourne University buildings. His birth registration shows his mother as Elsie Beatrice Kemp age 24, born in Moonta, South Australia in 1889. No father details are given on George’s birth record.

Moonta was the home to a number of Kemp families at the time. Elsie’s parents are known to be William Henry and Charlotte (nee Hartley) Kemp.

Elsie married Frederick Townley of Adelaide on 16 April 1919 shortly after Frederick returned from overseas service in the army. Private Frederick Townley (219) had been a soldier in Egypt and France for almost 4 years and returned to Australia on 30 January 1919. He had enlisted in January 2015 in Adelaide and his papers show his age at enlistment as 30 years and 8 months and his nominated next-of-kin to be his mother, Mary Townley of Knightsbridge South Australia.

Frederick was ill for much of his time overseas and spent time in various military hospitals on the continent and in England. After his return to Australia at the end of January 1919, Frederick Townley was hospitalised as rundown and anaemic. He was discharged from the army in May as medically unfit and died a month later on 13 June 1919 at the 7th Australian General Hospital, Keswick SA.  His death notice in the Adelaide newspaper was inserted by his wife, Elsie.

After Frederick died, Elsie Townley remarried in late 1919 to George Phillips and this marriage is registered in Victoria. Elsie died in Alexandra, Victoria on 15 December 1927 age 38. Her occupation at the time was given as waitress.

According to George, he ran away from home as a boy – possibly this was after the death of his mother in 1927 when George would have been 13, leaving him with his step-father, George Phillips. Some recall George saying that he was brought up by an uncle and aunt – presumably one of Elsie’s three brothers. Exactly when he ran away, and from whom (his stepfather or uncle and aunt), is not known.

From George’s anecdotes, we know he spent some of the depression years as an itinerant farm worker, mainly in southern NSW. George walked huge distances looking for work on farms along the Murray River and Riverina.

George Kemp enlisted in the Australian Army in Paddington on 24 May 1940. At the time of enlistment in 1940, George was living at 3 Alberta Street in the city of Sydney, most likely in one of the numerous boarding houses in that part of the city at the time. Alberta Street is a narrow lane connecting Clarke Street and Goulburn Street. On his enlistment papers, George’s nominated next-of-kin is Arthur “Jack” Francis Stranger of 44 Eleanor Street North Granville (now part of Rosehill). The next-of-kin relationship is given as “friend” – another indication that he was long separated from direct family. Arthur Stranger died in 2003 still living at Eleanor Street and at age 86, which indicates he was just a few years younger than George.

George gave his occupation on enlistment as “waiter”. Other family recollections are of George telling stories about working as a waiter at a fancy Sydney restaurant, Romano’s or something like that.

Three days after he enlisted in May 1940, George was attached to the newly-formed 2/6 Australian Field Regiment at Ingleburn. The regiment later moved to Bathurst for training before embarking for the Middle East in October and November 1940.  The first troops from the regiment established a camp at Deir Suneid, about 12 kilometres north of Gaza, in November. George left Sydney with a later contingent of the 2/6 on 14 November 1940 and disembarked at an unnamed Middle East port on 18 December 1940 then to the Deir Suneid headquarters of the 2/6 Field Regiment. The village of Deir Suneid was later completely destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. It was never reoccupied and does not appear on any current maps – only the ruins of two buildings of the former railway station remain.

At the end of February 1941, George was transferred out of the artillery regiment to 2/6 Australian Field Ambulance and, a month later, to the 2/7 Australian Field Ambulance.  Three weeks later, on 18 March 1941, he was again transferred, this time to 2/1 Australian Field Ambulance in time for that unit to be sent to Greece with the Australian forces on 24 March 1941 in what became known as the Mediterranean campaign.

The Mediterranean campaign was a disaster for the British, New Zealand and Australian forces in Greece. They were outnumbered by the Germans and, in the last week of April 1941, 26,000 troops were evacuated from Greece to Crete where they were soon again outnumbered by the German assault on the island and evacuated by British Navy and Australian Navy ships. The success of German assault on the island was partly attributed to the large-scale use of paratroops for the first time in World War 2. Around 3,000 Australian and NZ troops were not able to be evacuated before the German army captured Crete and these soldiers became prisoners of war. George was fortunate to be one of those evacuated from Crete back to Palestine on 3 June 1941.

It was here that George and Albert Shelley (NX72799) first served together after Albert was posted to 2/1 Australian Field Ambulance at Katana (Qatana) in Syria at the end of September 1941. Together, George and Albert Shelley served in Syria (then often referred to as Palestine), Ceylon, North Queensland and New Guinea with the 2/1 Australian Field Ambulance. George and Albert became lifelong friends and George became an adopted uncle to Albert’s four children.

Fifty years after the Mediterranean campaign, in May 1991, George became aware that the Greek Government was awarding a medal to the British, New Zealand and Australian soldiers who had served in the Mediterranean Campaign. He wrote to the Australian central army records office (CARO) in Melbourne enquiring about his eligibility for the medal. CARO replied that he needed to apply to the Greek Consulate in Sydney and provided him with a letter attesting to his service in the Mediterranean campaign. George received a certificate from Albania-Epiros Macedonia-Thrace-Crete Greek Republic for the commemorative medallion of the campaign of 1940-1941 granted to “Mr Kemp G” for having taken part in the campaign.

Because of the Japanese advances south in the Pacific region, Australian forces began to return from the Middle East to Australia in early 1942. The 2/1 Australian Field Ambulance left the Middle East in March 1942 for Ceylon where they stayed until early August before returning to Australia and landing in Melbourne from where they were deployed to Wondecla on the Atherton Tableland in Queensland in early September. A few weeks later, the unit was sent to Port Moresby.

The 2/1 Australian Field Ambulance was twice deployed from the Atherton Tableland to the war in New Guinea – in September 1942 and again in December 1944.  The 2/1 Field Ambulance spent over 18 months between March 1943 and December 1944 on the Atherton Tableland between its first and second deployments to New Guinea. George’s record during that period shows he forfeited pay on a number of occasions for being absent without leave. No doubt, after the experiences in the Middle East, being camped in an isolated location away from the actual war for this length of time was both frustrating and, at times, very boring and seemingly pointless. So, it is easy to understand why the soldiers might think overstaying leave was of little consequence to the war effort and hence not always return on time from periods of local leave. Perhaps too, it is another sign of George’s larrikin spirit.

After the war George worked at a Woolworths warehouse and, when younger, pre-war, he worked at a dairy in Granville, possibly in Blaxcell Street. Possibly this dairy is the connection with his friend and war-time nominated next-of-kin, Arthur Stranger, who lived at North Granville.

Albert Shelley’s daughters remember George working at Woolworths because George would take them, as his children, to the Woolworths Christmas party each year. They remember that Santa gave great presents to each child and the party was always huge with lots of rides and food. George also took them bowling at Parramatta and a highlight was when George took them to Luna Park.

In the 1970s, George shared a house with the widowed Edith Wilkins (nee Elks) in Padstow.  George and Edith married in the mid-1970s. George was in his seventies. Edith’s eldest brother, Ernest Elks (NX1806), also served in the Australian infantry in the middle east during World War 2. He was tragically killed on Christmas Eve 1940 at Sallum in Egypt when a ship in the port was bombed. Ernest was apparently involved in unloading Christmas Hampers provided by the Comfort Fund at the time. Ernest is buried in the Australian war cemetery at Sallum (Sollum). Edith died in Padstow on 19 Aug 1999 at the age of 81.

Around 2000, George and Albert Shelley and his wife Elsie (nee Cleaver NFX161631) were visiting one of Albert’s and Elsie’s daughters on a farm in the Hunter Valley. After lunch, everyone was sitting around chatting until it was suggested that they could go to a new winery nearby, which had recently opened a cellar-door tasting room. George instantly sprung to his feet (without even using the walking stick) and loudly responded with great enthusiasm “A WINERY! YES! LET’S GO!”.

At the winery, sitting on the verandah of the tasting room overlooking the vineyard. George, with a lively ongoing banter, quickly became a hit with the owner who topped up George’s glass regularly with various wines. After a quite lengthy session, I think George purchased a few bottles and the owner, so taken with the afternoon’s entertainment that George had provided, added a bottle of the vineyard’s speciality at no charge. That’s the way George affected people - even complete strangers.

In later years whenever we saw George, he would respond to the usual enquiry about how he was going with what became his standard response – “Rigor mortis hasn’t set in yet”. 

Albert and Elsie Shelley’s son, Don, commented on an early version of this story that George was “the larrikin uncle everyone should have”. This is reflected in the following tribute to George delivered by Maree Shelley at George’s funeral service in December 2007.

George Kemp was a true Australian character.

He displayed all those all those classic Australian characteristics – he had a touch of the cheeky larrikin about him, he loved a beer (or a champagne), a party and a punt on the horses.  He was always a friend.

In short, he was a mate.

Perhaps the strength of that mateship came from his time in the army in World War 2.  He served with my dad in the field ambulance in the middle east and in New Guinea - and that friendship, that mateship, lasted a life time.  Being in the ambulance reflected too his will to help people.  He wasn’t in the army to fight – he was there to help.  He told me once that when he got to New Guinea, the army issued him with quote “a blasted Tommy gun”.  His response was “what do I want that for?”

He made lots of new mates along the way.  Even though he rarely saw them, other than each Christmas, this cheeky, cheerful old fellow made a lasting impression on my children.  He never forgot them at Christmas.  A padded mail bag would arrive each year and inside would be separate envelopes, each addressed to a member of the family and containing a card and scratch lottery ticket.  Sometimes he got things a bit mixed up and my daughter would get her cousin’s card and lottery ticket (but the cousin didn’t need to be concerned, they never won anything) or my son Lincoln would miss out altogether – maybe another cousin got his.  But the package from Uncle George was part of our Christmas – something we are all conscious of this week and something we will all miss greatly at every future Christmas.

Don said today that George was always there for us.  That’s not strictly true. There must be a limit to the number of ballet recitals and physical culture competitions an uncle could be expected to endure and, he reluctantly, gave this audience role away. Likewise, he found netball games very trying – you were not allowed to shout out “Kill the ref”.

When we were kids, he used to bring us bags of lollies every week until my mother told him not to – they were not good for us.  But when he visited us, he always stopped at ‘Roys Roast Duck” and brought a roast for lunch. When my niece was born, he was her fourth visitor after her father and grandparents.

Uncle George had lots of trade marks.  He loved his cars – the VW and the green and white Kingswood – the one with the cushions.  I even remember he once had a book “How to Hot Up Your VW”.  I thought it was supposed to be a joke but it was a serious book.  I don’t think he ever got around to the hotting up the Vee Dub.  One of the earliest photos in my album is of me aged about 2 crouching next to a car and there reflected in the shiny hubcap you can see the photographer – George.

For years after they went out of fashion, he wore those flip-up, clip-on sunglasses.  Every time we saw him, he had them on – flipped up inside, flipped down out in the sun but ever present.  A trade mark.

He has always been involved in our family’s Christmas, not just with the cards but being there.  In recent years he would stay over for Boxing Day.  He would come armed with the same red Christmas cap with Merry Christmas embroidered on the front, have just the right amount of champagne at lunch and fall asleep in the afternoon.  And then he would liven up for Boxing Day – race day!  The trade mark red Christmas cap would be on again topped off with one of those radios in a set of head phones, complete with a Martian-like antenna.  These stayed glued to the Christmas cap all boxing day – getting the tips and form in the morning, listening to each race in the afternoon.  Boxing Day was a day for action, not for talking.

George never liked to be late or miss out on any of the action.  For some years he has been going to the Rosehill races on Saturday with my mother.   George would travel to the course by public transport and allow plenty of time in case something went wrong.  This meant he would sometimes arrive at the course hours before the first race and before the gates opened.  Eventually the course staff got used to this character turning up early all the time and sitting outside the gates so sometimes they sneaked him in – I think that could well have been part of his plan.

And of course, he loved a party.  My sister Jen commented earlier this week that George would cross the country for a party.   He was there for all our celebrations, weddings, birthdays - you name it, George would be there.  At Jen and Johns’ 40th, George was on the dance floor rocking to the juke box and enjoying himself to the full, smile from ear to ear and dancing with kids and adults alike.  This 81-year-old, as he was then, outlasted people a fraction of his age on the dance floor that night.  Sometimes dancing on his own and sometimes with the aid of his walking stick but all the time a picture of someone getting the most out of life. – they are useful things walking sticks – they can be extra legs for dancing or playing soccer or letting kids pinch at a church picnic recently.

He was delighted that he had 3 parties for his 90th birthday.  Although he was 93 he was not old - he was too busy living to take time to get old.