Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Uncle Mick loved horses having grown up in NZ and even had a career as a jockey
He however came to Australia and became a hairdresser
He married my aunt Gloria who was also a hairdresser
They were in Orange after Japanese midget sub came in Sydney harbour in 1941
My mother, Selma aged 11 born 1941learnt to ride off Uncle Mick when she was evacuated by her family from Kogarah Bay, Sydney in 1942 to Orange NSW
Uncle Mick enlisted 19 March 1942
I only know that my mother said he didn’t talk about his time in RAAF
She told me he looked like film star George Raft before war with jet black hair but he had shrapnel in his head and his hair turned pure white
Mick and Gloria had a son , John Mervyn who tragically was killed in a jeep accident in New Britain New Guinea at age 21. John like his father was an excellent horseman who played polo with great skill.
Uncle Mick hardly ever wore a shirt was always in sun with a tan and was very fit as I was growing up. They lived first up in Double Bay after war then at Randwick opposite Racecourse in a unit called Mile Post
Uncle Mick was a big smoker and unfortunately never slept much each night
He died of lung cancer At early age in his 70s in QLD Sorrento where he and auntie Gloria had retired.
My mother absolutely loved Mick and her cousin Gloria and my memory is of him as a kind loving husband and man.
Sharyn Wood niece