Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

When my father (known as Chris or Christos) came to Australia in the mid 1930's with his younger brother and sister. His parents and his little sister Petra were already dead. He was 6ft 2 inches (187 cms) tall. He could speak a few languages when he came to Australia, then gradually learned to speak English. He lived with his aunt and uncle who had come years earlier and had an established market gardening business. He settled into local activities such as the dances, where he eventually met his future wife, Gladys, whom he called Glad. They married when he was about 22 years old.
After he was discharged from the army in 1946 he bought a metal wheelbarrow with his army pay for his own market garden. I still have his wheelbarrow now repurposed as a garden decoration. In his market garden he had a draught horse to pull the plough, and a cow for milk. There were also ducks and chickens. He had glasshouses to grow tomatoes, cucumbers etc. He had outside paddocks of cabbages and cauliflowers, etc.
My father only mentioned to me once about his time in the army. In the 1980's he told me about one activity on the wharf in an Eastern State and how he was pleased to be able to explain the way it needed to be done in in the languages the men could understand, as some men were not yet fully proficient in English. It was during this conversation we were having at that time that he acted so pleased about having become an Australian citizen. My father was quite philosophical in some ways and had an understanding of irony. He made me laugh a lot during that conversation because he could be quite funny sometimes.
When my father was very ill near the end of his life, I asked him what he missed most, and was it fishing. My parents did a lot of fishing. He said he missed the ballroom dancing the most. They loved the ballroom dances. Three weeks later he died.

We have added some photos of some of his family:
1: The group photo is of his sister-in-law, Joyce Davey, mother-in-law Edith Davey holding his baby son, and his wife Gladys on the far right. This photo was from 1947.
2: The single photo was of myself in 1957.
3: Included is the memento from the funeral parlour.

My father Christo Goodman came to Australia from northern Greece when he was 17 years old. He loved Australia and became an Australian citizen. He joined the Australian army and was a corporal. He felt very honoured to be in the Australian army.