Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Awaiting further service details from 'Attestation Papers' - ordered through National Archives of Australia on 31/7/2014.

The son of James and Lillie Stephens.   John Stephens was educated at Henley Beach Primary School and from 1928 at Prince Alfred College, where he was academically successful and excelled at Football and Cricket.

A career with the Bank of Adelaide took John to Waikerie and Balaklava and during these years he furthered his Football.  He won the Home medal for best amateur player and twice received the Mail medal (1940 & for best and fairest in the league.

John’s football career was interrupted when in 1941 he enlisted in the 2/3^rd Machine Gun Battalion, but during training at Woodside he played one semi-final match for Norwood. 

His battalion served in Egypt and Lebanon, and in combat against Vichy forces in Syria, before being deployed to Java to fight the Japanese.

John was captured on Java and spent six months in a camp in Bandung (capital of west Java, Indonesia), before spending three years on the Thai-Burma railway.  Whilst in captivity John underwent surgery for a hernia with an improvised local anaesthetic in the care of Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop.

On release, John returned to Australia and was provided with a suit by the Army, and he delighted in telling the story that he re=joined the queue and got a second suit.  Equally practical was the Army’s sponsorship of a course in accountancy and he commenced in practice in Adelaide in 1948.

In 1948, John married Joan Woodgate and together they raised two sons and a daughter.  The Stephen’s family was a happy one and John and Joan encouraged their children to excel in their choice of activities.  During these years and in retirement he found time to enjoy football, tennis, lawn bowls and golf at Mt Osmond where he delighted in being a life member.   He also served the Adelaide Workmen’s Homes Inc for 45 years and as secretary of the Adelaide Polo club from 1964 – 1992.

In 1987 John suffered the tragedy of the deaths of Joan and their daughter Diana.

Over the years John’s accountancy firm Stephens and Associates flourished, he was joined by his sons Grant and Donald, and he worked until the age of 75.  Today the firm is known as HLB Mann Judd and employs 80 in its Adelaide office, where he was a respected figure affectionately known as ‘Sir’.

In 1990 John joined with Joyce Radbone who, through her late husband Harry, was familiar with John’s POW experiences.  They remained a devoted partnership and enjoyed the company of successive generations of their families, who in turn valued the interest they showed in their lives.

Incisive and positive of mind, warm to all all, and possessing a delightful wit always accompanied by sparkling eyes, John Stephens made the most of every moment of life, firmly founded in the knowledge that many of his Army mates were not so fortunate.

John’s experiences as a POW remained with him and he was a stalwart of the Ex-Prisoners of War Association of South Australia, and was instrumental in relocating their monument and annujal VP Day service of remembrance to Prince Alfred College.  John’s funeral was conducted at the college and none present will forget the powerful combination of the Last Post played by a school boy and the Ode given by his fellow POW Bill Schmidt.

John Stephens is survived by his companion Joyce Radbone, sons Grant and Donald, his grandchildren and those of Joyce, and one great-grandchild.

Thank you to Grant Stephens for John's portrait and story.

Sourced and submitted by Julianne T Ryan.  18 August 2014.  Lest we forget.