Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

After the 2nd world war, Ken Cahill became a telephone technician with the PMG at the Prospect telephone exchange. I was a teenage technician in training at the time and learned that he lived with his sister in Ovingham in Adelaide. His hobby was amateur radio and his call sign was VK5KC. Having the same initials, and later on both being promoted to the position of senior technicians, we were both responsible for the PABX (private automatic branch exchanges) that were located in large factories and hospitals etc.
It was later in his working life when Ken lost all of his hair and he wore an ill-fitting wig. As one of a number of ex-servicemen who also worked for the P.M.G. this loss was thought to be the long term effects of the stress from his days in the Navy. Like most of these people, he spoke little about his ordeals and concentrated on his technical work.