Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

“Jim” Noyce was another of the soldiers who rotated through our unofficial “drop-in centre” house in Prospect Adelaide during the war, some of them relatives, some mates, some mates of mates, but Jim was from one of the Eyre Peninsula farming families that my parents knew from their early days at Yaninee.
A few extracts from his letters back home to my parents are added here...

(21 Sept 1941 - “26 Sth Aust Inf Trg Batt” in Palestine)
He expresses sadness at the death (in Tobruk) of Mum’s sister’s husband, and that he’d try to find out more for them. He also says “...I wear a pair of glasses now, they look funny perched on my fat face, but I can see a lot clearer, but are damned awkward, but I suppose I get used to them...”, and how “...I’ll be looking forward to your parcel, you’re a dear to think of me, it is nice to get a parcel from Aussie, it will be more so welcome when I get back in the desert. I’ve sold my camera, was one of those you put in your eye to take photo, so now I wear glasses I couldn’t do it. so sold it. I feel lost without it, may get a different type later on...”

(28 Nov 1941 - “F Coy HQ Guard Batt Palestine”)
He tells how he got a cake for his birthday from his Mum, and how “...we had supper that night. A lot of the boys are getting parcels now, we often have supper, it makes things more homelike, not that I ever had supper at home, but a few cookies from home seems to give us a thrill...”, then talks of his guard duties with his new battalion, and that “...a batch of V.A.D.s (nurses) have landed right alongside of us and we have to do guards on them too, although I haven’t been on that guard yet much to my disgust...”, and how “...they went for a march yesterday and looked real good to see a splash of colour in the drab landscape...”, then a touch of homesickness crept in, when rain gave “...a welcome tinge of green in the landscape, makes me long for the good old farming days back in the mallee.”

(30 Dec 1941 - “26 Sth Aust Inf Trg Batt” in Palestine)
He tells how “...your first parcel arrived a fortnight ago, also some papers, Comforts funds gave us a nice parcel, and the army put on a good dinner, turkey spuds, peas, gravy, Pudding, jelly, custard, bottle beer, packet of cigs, so we done very nicely.”

John, known as Jim was born at Red Hill on the 19th November 1906, was one of eight children born to George William and Ellen Noyce. His siblings were William, George, Bob, Don, Gladys and Nellie. Their first-born son, William Thomas lived to be a year old but died in October 1901 and is buried in St Martin’s Catholic Cemetery at Port Pirie.
Jim grew up in Warramboo, attending the Clements Gap Primary School near Port Pirie in the mid-north of South Australia. (Later, during WWII the school became the site of an American training Camp in ’42.) He then worked with his father on the family farm before beginning training as a motor mechanic. Later, George took up farming on the Eyre Peninsula, with his older brother George Phillip. Jim also developed a strong working knowledge of mechanics, producer gas and plants which would eventually be of importance as his time in the army progressed.
With the outbreak of WWII, 34-year-old Jim enlisted on the 2nd July ’40 at a similar time to Arthur ‘Spitz’ Grocke SX7291, Norman ‘Stiffy’ Grocke SX7290 and Ernest (Howard) Chapman. The West Coast Recorder that month reported that ‘Seven young men left Koongawa last Wednesday by train for the 2nd A.I.F. They were—Cyril Cummings, Henry Hier, Howard Chapman, Cedric Payne, Arthur and Norman Grocke, and Jim Noyce.’ (In the case of Cyril Cummings, my great-uncle, his farm had fallen victim to the Depression but he remained in the Warramboo District working as a builder and shearer earning one pound and 5 shillings ($1.50) per hundred through blade shearing until he enlisted in the 2nd AIF in 1940.) Additionally, Eric Chapman (Waddikee Rock) ‘Cody' Duggin (Pygery) and Noel Wall (Kyancutta), had also enlisted. Of these, three, Arthur Grocke, Jim Noyce and Howard Chapman were all eventually to be allocated to the 2/48th battalion. The newspaper proudly announced that ‘Kyancutta's war effort is now taking very definite shape.’
Later that month the Port Lincoln Times was also reporting that ‘Mr. Jim Noyce and Mr. George Nolan have left to join the A.I.F. Both men passed their first medical test under Dr. M. A. Trudinger at Warramiboo.’ The same article also praised the local children for their collecting of all ‘spare’ metal and silver paper, selling bottles and newspapers to contribute to the war effort.
The first days for the new enlistees were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, now part of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds before the battalion headed to Woodside in the Adelaide Hills for preliminary training. There Jim met up with others from his home region. The young soldiers were given pre-embarkation leave in October, with Jim and his three fellow 2/48th soldiers returning home to a farewell dance in their honour at the Waddikee Rock Hall. There the Comforts Fund and their local football team, the Waddikee Rovers presented the young men with knitted items, a Bible, watch and fountain pen.
All too soon, Jim and his fellow members of the 2/48th Battalion then embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East, on the 7th November 1940, with a stopover at Freemantle in Western Australia and a last taste of home soil. The ship eventually arrived in the Middle East on the 19th December 1940 where the Battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica. During those early, the battalion settled into a Palestinian camp at Dimra, but besides regular army duties was the need to quickly adapt to the locals and local conditions. The new soldiers were soon involved in intense conflicts where the reputation of the 2/48th Battalion for being the most highly decorated but decimated battalion was earned.
Almost immediately, in January ’41 Jim was undertaking a week-long Cinematography Operators’ Course. Soon after arriving, letters were received back home and published in the local paper ‘from Gunner Des Campbell, Ptes. Hedley Chilman and Jim Noyce who are in Egypt. All are well and contented. Pte. Noyce sent a roll of film home to be developed and the photos printed were very interesting. Most of the snaps were taken while he was in Ceylon and give both the dirty and beautiful side of life there.’ Photography was to become a life-long interest of Jim’s, with his talents being recognised both nationally and internationally, but sadly not by the army.
Other letters arrived and were published, sharing small details about the local men. Private Allan Smith SX4090 described meeting Jim Hedley Chapman and Arthur Grocke in Palestine. “I saw Grocke and Noyce from Cootra yesterday and young Chapman is with them too but at present he is in hospital.’ Smith gave a fascinating view of life. “Don't believe anything you hear re the Australian Comforts Fund for they have given us nearly as much tobacco and papers and soap as we have bought and sometimes on top of this issue a block of chocolate. I have had to buy no washing soap at all. As I sit writing this letter, I can hear somebody singing "She's Nobody’s Mother but Mine,' while another chap sings " Roll out the Barrel." Quite a cheerful lot, They must have received a letter from home, That is the only time they break out when sober. I have been through some of the country where the Turks and British had the last scrap. The Italians still hanging on, but very weakly with town after town falling. We are getting quite a lot of fighting material; Egypt is very desolate. The only green in hundreds of miles of white sandhills are the date palms growing around an oasis. I sat on an ant nest yesterday and it was a sign of an early spring, They are about one inch long.”
Probably due to the less than hygienic conditions, sand and heat, Jim contracted a skin condition that require a bout of treatment back at the Dimra camp. All too soon, he then sustained a compound fracture of his finger, requiring hospitalisation in May ’41 (this diagnosis was later changed to an accidental injury). In Judith Long’s book The Waddikke Rock Honor Roll she explains that post war Jim detailed that ‘he was buried in the sands of Tobruk after a shell exploded in the trench where he and fellow soldiers were crouching.’ By the end of ’41 the decision was made to return Jim to Australia for six months on compassionate grounds. Judith Long gives a possible reason for the series of events when Jim, whilst convalescing, took photos of a Sports Day, showing the images to his Captain ‘who immediately confiscated both the camera and the film as they were considered a threat to army security. Physically, Jim’s wounds may not have been serious but the psychological effects, plus the confiscation of his camera, were the ‘final straw’ for him.’
Jim then trained with the 4 MD but was soon awarded leave on compassionate grounds and granted leave without pay in April ’42, enabling him to return home, as did Malcolm Hurrell SX11842 and Corporal Hedley Chilman, SX4242 both from the 27th Battalion. A joyous welcome celebration for the men was held in the Warramboo Hall. (25-year-old Hedley was later killed in action in Papua in November that year.) The young soldiers were escorted to their table by the president of the local Comforts Fund. The ' Song of Australia ' was sung, and the guests were then joined by relatives and friends. Private Noyce was accompanied by his mother and sister, Nellie with a posy of flowers later being presented to his mother. After supper, short speeches of welcome were made. The three soldiers briefly responded, all agreeing there was no place like Australia. After singing ' Bless 'em All,' dancing ensued. The Port Lincoln Times added that ‘All the returned boys spoke in praise of the Comforts Fund, and said how much the parcels, letters and papers had been appreciated. Nellie afterwards returned to Warramboo with Jim, to have a little more precious time in his company.
Within two years of enlisting, many of the names published in the local paper praising them for enlisting, were again to appear in print in June ’42 but with more unwelcome news. ‘Died Of Injuries L/Cpl N. D. Wall, SX7783, Inf., Kyancutta. Placed On Seriously Ill List Sgt. H. F. McFarlane, S25671, Inf., Renmark. Norm Grocke, Arthur Grocke, Eric Chapman, Cedric Payne, Cyril Cummings Henry Hier (Waddikee Rock), Jim Noyce (Warramboo), and Mr. "Cody' Duggin (Pygery).
Back with the AIF, Jim was then posted to the 3rd Transport Brigade at Tanunda in the Barossa where he attended a Drivers Course, becoming a First-Class driver in August ’42. More leave of almost 5 months followed before Jim was then posted to Watsonia, Victoria to the Motor Transport School. With that course successfully completed, Jim again returned home on leave where the Waddikee Rock Hall was soon celebrating the return of the newly promoted Driver Noyce in July. By April ’43 Jim was granted leave without pay for two months which then extended to October before he was transferred to the 23AIF battalion because of his medical classification as Class B
Jim was not to return to active service and was eventually discharged in January ’44, returning to the comparative tranquillity of farming with his brother. As did so many farmers, Jim met a local teacher and musician, Mary Bienke with the two marrying at Cootra East in June ’45. They were later to have two daughters, Christine and Helen. In their early days, Jim, Mary and their small daughter, Christine continued to travel back to Pirie to see Jim’s parents, including helping them celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary in ‘48.
By September ’49 the sub-branches of the RSL had organised a ‘grand challenge’ match between Kyancutta and Wudinna. The West Coast Sentinel shared that ‘Many players who had not donned guernseys for many years came into action. The proceeds of gate takings were shared between the sub-branches for their building funds. Both teams fielded players who had participated in the ordinary club games throughout the season as well as many who retired from the game after World War I. The game opened with plenty of dash.’ Tongue-in-cheek, the reporter then mentioned the need for some players to be revived with a swig of something strong while others ‘went in search of the time-keepers’. Jim did add two good goals for his Kyancutta side whilst the umpire contributed to keeping the score more even with a strategic handpass to a Wudinna player. At half time a more sobering gathering was made of players and spectators who stood for a minute of silence as a tribute to their fallen comrades.
Jim’s talents and interest in photography continued to blossom and be recognised in competitions including the Warramboo Bureau Jubilee Show of ’51 and the Adelaide Exhibition of ’52. With the Governor of SA (Sir Willoughby Norrie) visiting Eyre Peninsula and being presented with a copy of Jim’s winning landscape photograph. In his response, the Governor wrote “Thank you for saying you are sending a photograph taken by Mr. Jim Noyce, which I look forward to receiving. Please congratulate him on getting first prize in the Adelaide Exhibition.”
Jim and Mary immersed themselves in their local community and their daughters’ education. Not unexpectedly, Mary became the inaugural President of the newly formed Warramboo School Welfare Club, in ’52, including organising a miniature debutante ball in a beautifully flower-decked hall. The Port Lincoln Times observed that ‘The behaviour of the children was a credit to the ladies who trained them, and each small couple did their part with dignity and grace. It was a pretty sight when each small girl made a curtsey to her partner and was escorted to her seat.’ Christine was one of thirteen young students who made her mini-debut. She also appeared to inherit her father’s creativity, winning the prize for the best decorated girl’s bike in ’54.
Jim’s parents survived to see Jim return from war but his father, George died age 81 in November ’52. His mother, Ellen lived for a further five years and also died aged 81 in November ’57. Both are buried in the Port Pirie Cemetery where their children are also remembered on their headstone. Soon after, Jim and Mary moved to Port Lincoln where Jim share-farmed but followed his main passion of photography, establishing his own business. His talents were widely recognised at both national and international levels.
Jim lived to be 93 and died in Port Lincoln on the 11th November 2000. He is now remembered in the Port Lincoln Happy Valley Garden of Remembrance Cemetery, RSL Section. In the entrance to the Cemetery is a second tribute to both Jim and James Joseph Silvy SX13315 from the 2/6th Battalion.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.