Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

My Dad, or Caitie ('K T' Collison) as he was affectionately known to his crew mates, told me a lot about his days on patrol during the second world War. Dad was on the HMAS Martindate sailing from Sydney, arriving in Milne Bay PNG on 7 July 1944. [see: http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-martindale]

Dads profession on land was working with the South Australian Electric Company first converting Adelaide from DC power, to the new AC power. He was an electrician and helped convert lifts and other motor driven services plus reworked the design of the Royal Adelaide Hospital as it converted to the new power source in the 1920/30's.

Dad had a real passion for boats, ships, the ocean and the especially the Navy.
He loved every minute of it but spoke often about how frightened he and the crew were during their daring missions in Papua New Guinea. Evenings on patrol looking out for mines, aeroplanes circling overhead as the Martindale acted under cover as a simple domestic vessel whilst gathering information about the area and spotting trouble on the horizon. Dad was the chef on board and he rapidly became good at his work due to the harassment he got if the food was not up to scratch but this made him quite creative with his food preparation. He absolutely adored his fellow sailors on board who worked incredibly closely as a team protecting each other while providing valuable information back to the Australian Navy.

When he arrived back from the war he married (Mary) and had two children (John and Peter) but that sadly did not work out. He moved to Melbourne in the late 1940's early 50's and worked for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC) and this is where he built his skill-set in the power industry. When he moved back to Adelaide in early 1950, he joined the Electricity Trust of South Australia and stayed with them until retirement. He became Supervisor of Stores for the state.

He luckily met my Mum (Roma) in 1955 marrying her in 1960, taking on her two children (Julie & myself, William). We all moved in together minus Peter who married Shirley. Our home was at 19 Mabel Street Plympton SA, and we were one of the few people to have a home phone.
The number was 536509 and was part of Dads package at ETSA. That phone got a hammering from we kids and Mum and occasionally rang at 2am to report a fault within the power grid network which dad then had to arrange crews to fix power stations often hundreds of miles away from his stores.

When Dad retired, he followed his passion of the seas and decided to take on the awesome task of building a boat. We had a gigantic shed built and he got to work. It was a Hartley Hull boat and it was his pride and joy, possibly one of the hardest things we had to sell after he had died (1989). I was with him for hours and hours as he built it, probably not really assisting too much, but learning so much. ETSA gave him a battery charger for his retirement and also he scammed a giant trailer which was hand welded / crafted & built by his team in 'stores'. I'm not sure the Electricity Trust knew they had funded that.

Dads work in the navy was valuable as seen in a letter he received later on which he always treasured. He met with his crew members regularly with the last time being in Sydney only months before he passed away.

My father was an absolute treasure of a Man. He was important to me in absolutely every aspect of my life, and not only did he help his country, he helped everyone he knew and had dealings with. Kind, honest and gentle. He was a generous and most gorgeous man, and I miss him more than anything, and I'm as proud of him as he was of me.