Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

One of five siblings who served in WWII, Aircraftwoman Dorothy Pauline Thomas (Service No:107397) enlisted in the WAAAF on 23 November 1942 at No 5 Recruiting Centre Adelaide - mustered as Equipment Assistant. Aircraftwoman Thomas was attached to Air Force HQ Melbourne, No 4 Training Squadron and 7 Operational Training Unit (OTU). At Discharge on 20 August 1946, Aircraftwoman Thomas was attached to 14 Signals Unit (SU).

Joan was born in Glenelg, South Australia in 1922, sixth of seven children of Henry (George) Thomas (b1888 on Woolahra, New South Wales) and Harriet Rose Butler (b1891 in Glenelg, South Australia). George was reported as Missing from Woollahra in 1907, and in 1914 he and Harriet married in Glenelg, where they settled and raised their family and George was a Tomato Grower. George was killed in an accident in 1963 when he was riding his bicycle home from work after dark.

Joan was raised by her Uncle Vic and Aunt Mary Werrey, and worked as a Shop Assistant before enlisting in the WAAAF in 1942. Following her Discharge in 1946 she retrained as a Hairdresser, establishing her own business in Unley. In 1949 in Unley, Joan married her first husband Leonard (Len) Albert Werrey (b1922 in Unley, South Australia) - Len served in the RAN (Leading Coder; Service No:24682) in WWII. Joan and Len Divorced and both remarried - Joan in 1969 in Adelaide to Silvester Varga (b1929 in Mako, Hungary) - Silvester arrived as a Displaced Person from Italy in 1949 on board the USS General Stewart, and was Naturalised in 1954. Joan and Silvester settled in Adelaide, where Silvester was a Motor Mechanic. Joan - described in her Obituary as 'a rather glamorous lady' (Neville Thomas; 2003)-  died in 2003 and Silvester died in 2006.