Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Jack was the sixth of eight children of Matthew Dyson (b1861 in Perth, WA) and Emma Holloway (b1877 in Toodyay, WA). Matthew (a Farmer and Dealer) and Emma married in Perth in 1895 and raised their family in Fremantle. Following Matthew's death in 1911, Emma remarried in 1914. The marriage was short - lived and Emma raised the two children from her second marriage on her own.

Jack worked a Cook's Assistant and was a Farm Hand in Morowa WA in 1931 when he married Thelma May O'Leary (b1911 in Perth, WA). They separated in 1933, and Jack was working as a Station Hand in Mingenew WA. In February 1938 Jack pleaded guilty in the Perth Criminal Court to bigamy - having used a false name (John Joseph Lester) and gone through a false marriage ceremony with fourteen year old Elsie May Walling, also working in Mingenew. Jack had been sent to goal the previous year for eight months following charges in the Perth Children's Court for failure to maintain his wife and two children as ordered by the Court. Jack was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment for bigamy (Geraldton Guardian and Express; Tues 15 Feb 1938; p1).

In 1939 Jack married Eva Alice Phillips (b1910 in Kent, England). Eva worked as a Domestic Servant and arrived in Fremantle WA in 1928 on board the Beltana. The couple moved to Kilburn, Port Adelaide in South Australia where Jack worked as Shipwright's Assistant and Butcher's Assistant. He applied to enlist in the Army but was rejected due to 'foot trouble' and in March 1944 enlisted in the RAAF (Corporal; Service No:152517). On enlistment, Jack was described as 'Good type. Appearance good. Ability, character and aptitude all good. Well balanced and suitable all Service Police duties' (National Archives Australia). In July 1945 Jack died of septicaema following treatment for tonsillitis. Eva died in 2002.