Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

OTTEWELL, Reginald David, aka Reg and Rocky, NX25105, Private, 2/1 Pioneers Battalion, Rat of Tobruk. Enlisted at Bathurst, NSW on 05 May 1940. Sadly, he was to spend some time in a military hospital while serving in Palestine. He was recorded as being single and a storeman and listed his mother, Ellen as his next of kin. For some reason, she is recorded as Helen. He was discharged from the A.I.F. on 19 Nov 1942.

Rocky was born on 10 Nov 1900 in Surry, England and was the son of David Richard and Ellen Ottewell nee Howard. In 1911, he was living at 239 Knights Hill, West Norwood with his parents, his sister, Irene Mabel (13) and his younger brother, Leonard Douglas (5). They also had a boarder.

At the age of 12, on 28 Jun 1913, Rocky immigrated to Sydney, Australia, on the Norseman, with his mother, sister and brother. His father had immigrated a year earlier to South Australia. I assume this was to get established before his family followed. In 1933, Rocky was living at Annandale, Dally, N.S.W.. From 1934 to 1939, he was living at O'Connell, MacQuarie, N.S.W. By the time Rocky enlisted in 1940, he was living at Napolean Reef, via Walang, N.S.W.

After his discharge, the Census has him living in Darwin, N.T. in 1949. Sadly, his mother had died 2 years earlier. His father also predeceased him in 1960.

Rocky, a pensioner, became homeless and spent his his last years sitting under a Banyan tree and running messages for his friend, Theo Manolas, a local businessman. A Darwin local remembers Rocky as a quiet, mild mannered man with a bushy beard who kept mostly to himself, despite the occasional issue with the 'long grassers'. It seems he was once a fine boxer, but that he was affected as a result. Sadly, in Oct 1967, Rocky was found sleeping under his Banyan tree - never to wake again.

Theo Manolas, Rocky's friend, had a plaque made as the form of an obituary and placed on the tree. He also also owned a kiosk near the tree which he named Rockys Place. It became a meeting place for locals. Ted Opitz, another Territorian and poet, wrote a poem about Rockys Place. Despite development of the area and the loss of the Banyan tree, there are locals who wish to ensure Rocky's name lives on.

The plaque reads:

THIS WAS ROCKY.
ROCKY slept under this tree and this courtyard was his home for the last years of his life. ROCKY, his name was REGINALD OTTEWELL, was an old Territorian who kept very much to himself. But it was said that he was a fine boxer and that fighting left its mark too deep on him. He was a Returned Serviceman and RAT OF TOBRUK.
ROCKY slept here, and earned his keep running messages for THEO MANOLAS.who liked the quiet, cheerful old fellow so much that he named his kiosk and this courtyard ROCKY'S PLACE.
ROCKY died in his sleep at the age of 67, Oct. 1967 under this tree. This place will carry his name for as long as this city exists.


Sources: Virtual War Memorial Australia, National Archives Australia, Ancestry, Theo Manolas' plaque honouring Rocky, Old Darwin Facebook page, Geordie Manolas, Denver Marchant, Susan Piening and Sarah Amies.