Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Bob was born on 15 Mar 1908 at Mount Cooper (near Venus Bay, SA) to Thomas Hood and Agnes Hood (nee Phillips).  He was the eldest of 10 children in the family, 5 boys and 5 girls. His father was a farmer at Mount Cooper on an 800 Ha scrub block, “The Granites”.

In 1914 Bob went to Mount Wedge to live with his uncle, John Wood, to enable him to attend a new primary school that had been built on his Uncle’s property; during his early schooling his father became seriously ill. At the end of 1921 he completed his schooling as he was needed at home to help on the farm. After the harvest of 1930 he decided to move to Adelaide and leased a fruit block in Upper Sturt, growing strawberries, apples and pears; to supplement the farm income he bought a Dodge truck and supplied wood to the bakeries at Enfield and Walkerville.

In Jan 1931 he married Joie Buckley at the Walkerville Church of England. They initially lived at Tea Tree Gully before moving to Walkerville. In Dec 1932 he was asked if he would come back to Mount Cooper and assist with harvest; he agreed, purchased a Ruggles truck and returned to “The Granites”. After harvest he continued carting both wheat and super with the truck, thus the start of his carrying business; he then purchased a house a Port Kenny and the couple commenced their family of a daughter and 2 sons.

The carrying business grew rapidly and by the 1938-39 harvest Bob had two 10 tonne semitrailers and two 6 tonne rigid trucks carting grain in the area. He was also the receiving agent at Port Kenny for a major wheat buying agency. His vehicles became the first to carry fat lambs from Streaky Bay to the Adelaide Markets and fish from the West Coast to Adelaide. This was at a time when all traffic was via Horrocks Pass as the coast road had not yet been made between Port Augusta and Port Pirie!

In April 1940 Bob sold his carrying business, arranged the sale of his house and goods and enlisted in the RAAF. The family moved to Kensington and he commenced his training as an engine fitter at the Trade Training School. After successfully completing the course he was posted to Melbourne for further training and then to No.3 Aircraft Depot (AD) Laverton (Vic), promoted to Corporal, and placed in charge of an engine repair section. He was later posted to No.5 Squadron, also at Laverton, which was equipped with Wirraway aircraft and remained with the Sqn when it was warned for service in PNG and moved to Toowoomba for further training.

He was reposted to 83 Repair Group (US Air Force) at Eagle Farm (Qld) to train on Kittyhawk and Liberator Bomber propulsion units, whilst the remainder of his Sqn went to PNG; he was promoted to Sergeant during this period. At the conclusion of this training he was posted to No. 5 AD at Amberley (Qld) to establish an engine a repair section. He was then posted to No. 12 AD and then No. 24 Sqn, both in Darwin, for 2 years before returning to Amberley.

Bob remained in the RAAF for a year after the end of the war, finally taking his discharge on 10 Sep 1946. He returned to Eyre Peninsula and applied for a “Soldiers Settlers” block at Tumby Bay. His wife, Joie, decided not to leave the city, so they divorced when Bob commenced share farming at Yeelanna; he continued share farming for 3 years until he was allocated a block in Jul 1949. In Aug of the same year he married Valerine Ellen Hobson, whom he had met some months previously at a Keswick tennis party. Val, a city girl, took to farming like a “duck to water”

The couple moved onto the farm in early 1950 and remained on the farm for 11 years before moving into a house in Tumby Bay in 1961 and selling the farm to Charlie Lawrie. Bob was then offered a position as an inspector for SACBH; his first job was to turn and fumigate 7000 tons of wheat at Lock! In 1965 Bob was elected as State Director of SACBH and played a large part in developing bulk handling in SA; he retired from SACBH after 16 years service.

The couple were very keen sportspeople, playing tennis, bowls and golf at Tumby Bay. When the Tumby Bay Bowls Club was established, soil from Hood’s farm was used to lay the first green. Both he and Val were foundation members of the Club, with Bob also serving as president and in later years as patron. He was also president of the Progress Association and was elected to the Tumby Bay District Council (town ward) in 1963.

Bob passed away on 5 Oct 1997 and is buried in the Tumby Bay Cemetery. Val died on 15 May 2000 and is buried beside her husband.