Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

This (truncated) account of Jo's life and war service was written by Indigo Lemay-Conway of Perth Now News, Western Australia on the occasion of mum's 100th Birthday.  It is submitted by Jo's youngest daughter, Joanne Cockram, who also participated in the interview.

When war was declared in 1939, Mrs Winstone joined the Armadale Emergency Corps where she learnt first aid, home nursing and how to be a stretcher bearer.  "We did marching drills and fired guns; I met up with some great girls and we even made our own uniforms" Mrs Winstone said.

When Darwin was bombed, Mrs Winstone did not want to get conscripted, so in April 1942 she decided that she would exercise her own choice and join the Air Force.

"I thought I would be better off joining the Air Force and getting paid for my war effort," she said. "I signed the papers myself and told Mum 'I'm leaving, I've joined up'."

Mrs Winstone was then posted to Mallala Hospital as a sick quarter's attendant, where it was said she endured six months of hell. "Other nurses pulled an unkind trick on her where she was asked to take breakfast to someone who had been injured," Mrs Cockram said.  The person had actually died after an aircraft accident. "It turned out one of the doctors there was aware of what happened and called Mum in to talk about it and he helped her get a posting where she could train as a flight rigger," Mrs Cockram said. "So it was an opportunity to leave and she readily grasped that.  Fortunately, it also meant twice the pay."

Mrs Winstone was posted to Kalgoorlie to work as a flight rigger, and that's where she would eventually meet her husband Leslie Edward Winstone, whom she would marry in July 1946, a year after she was discharged.  

On her return to Perth, she worked at the Wheaties factory in North Fremantle for two years.  They built their own home in East Fremantle, and would go on to have four children: Suzanne, Cheryl, Leslie and Joanne.

After her children grew up, she worked at The John Curtin Senior High School canteen for 10 years and then as a volunteer with the ladies Auxilliary at Fremantle Hospital for 20 years, taking the "lolly trolley" throughout the hospital.

Mrs Winstone lived independently at home until 2021, even continuing to tend her garden and grow vegetables as a sprightly 99 year old.  "In the last year or two, my brother would dig over the ground for herand he would plant things for her and then she'd water them and watch them grow," Mrs Cockram said.  After a knee injury in August 2021 that left her unable to walk, Mrs Winstone moved into an aged care facility.  When asked how she wanted to celebrate her 100th birthday, she said: "I want to go out for bacon and eggs for breakfast".