Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

GEORGE ALBERT WEIDENHOFER

George was the son of Albert Ernest WEIDENHOFER & Elizabeth Louise ELY and was born on the 3rd of May 1916 in Norton Summit, SA.

His parents were married on the 3rd of April 1915 in Pt Adelaide

His mother was the daughter of Thomas ELY & Louise Anny Mary SCHULTZE and was born on the 3rd of April 1889 in Pt Adelaide, SA.

His father was the son of August WEIDENHOFER & Mary Ann JACOBS and was born on the 15th of January 1888 in Woodside, SA.

George was the eldest son born into a family of 4 children.

When only a toddler, living in the mallee region at Peake, he wandered away from his home. A search party was organized and eventually a very tearful and frightened little boy was found with his feet stuck in a mud puddle, unable to free himself.

The family moved to Church Street, Pt Adelaide and his father was a labourer.

His little brother; Thomas, was born in July 1917. Followed by Samuel, on the 14th of June 1919, but sadly he died 8 months later.

In 1922 the family moved to Jervois where his father was a dairy farmer and leased block 968 in the Hundred of Brinkley, containing 49 acres, from the Irrigation Commission. He also held the adjoining property.

When the family moved to Jervois on the Lower River Murray, school was taught in a room of someone’s house, but only children seven years or more, could attend. George, aged only six, missed out.

He had vivid memories of the day, when he was about eight years old; that a doctor came to the house and George had to lie on a table. A piece of cotton wool, soaked with ether was placed over his nose, so that the doctor could take out his tonsils.

As more families moved into the area, a stone school was built so George completed his primary schooling at Jervois before attending Unley High School for a year. His parents could not afford to pay for him to live away from home so George returned to Jervois to help with the dairy farm.

A prolonged and widespread drought caused crop failures and many hardships across the country. George’s father had rented a property near Sherlock, which was about thirty miles north of Jervois. He and a hired labourer grew grain crops and lucerne. Once a week, George at the age of sixteen and driving his father’s Model T Ford truck, took his mother to Sherlock with a week’s supply of food for his father and his mate.

Meanwhile George helped his mother to manage their dairy farm with the help of his Uncle Otto.

After George’s father, Albert died from Bronchial Pneumonia and Tetanus on the 26th of January 1939, the family continued to live at Jervois where George worked for a short time as a cheese-maker’s assistant at the Jervois Co-operative Dairy Soc. Ltd.

His brother Thomas enlisted into the RAAF on the 10th of December 1940 in Adelaide.

George enlisted into the 2/27th Battalion Scottish Regiment on the 30th of June 1942 in Adelaide River, NT. He was allotted the service number SX23923. He listed his mother as next of kin.

He served in Darwin, Queensland, Bouganville and New Guinea.

At the end of the war he spent six months with the Movement Control Section at the Victoria Barracks in Brisbane, during which time he met a young lady, Daphne Eva Theresa APPEL.

George was discharged on the 5th of April 1946, he had been promoted to Sergeant.

George returned to Adelaide and in January 1951 George announced his engagement to Gwenyth Joy MORGAN. Sadly, just one month before they were due to be married, on the 22nd of September 1951, Gwenyth died suddenly. She was found at the foot of a 200 foot cliff near the Morialta Falls, it appears she had committed suicide as she left a note to her mother in her handbag at the top of the falls. Gwenyth was a machinist employed by the P.M.G. and in April had undergone an operation for a Hernia, but did not recover physically and was at the time of her death suffering a nervous break down.

George reacquainted with Daphne and they married on the 14th of February 1953 in St Thomas Church of England, Toowong, QLD. Daphne was the daughter of Albert William Bismark APPEL & Ruby Ellinor WADE and was born on the 14th of October 1915 in QLD.

Returning to Adelaide, they lived at 41 Rutland Avenue, Lockleys.

George took a temporary job at General Motors Holden at Woodville, before joining the P.M.G. (Post Master General) Department. He studied so that he was able to pass the technician and then the senior technician’s exams and eventually rose to the position of Senior Technical Officer of the Telephone Exchanges.

They welcomed a son into the family.

George worked in many of the Exchanges in Adelaide, until his retirement in 1981.

Daphne died on the 26th of February 1984 in Adelaide and is buried in the Norton Summit Cemetery; Section H, Row 1, Plot 256N.

Around 1997 George met Kathleen SCROOP, whom he had known in his younger days. They married in 2001 and lived happily at a retirement village at Morphett Vale, both enjoying active lives at the village.

George was a member of the Blackwood RSL Sub Branch.

George died on the 28th of April 2014 in Adelaide.

Photo Reference;

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/169441848/person/362195808278/facts