Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 487
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 487]
(28)
soldiers through the main street of the city, past flag-waving cheering crowds welcoming us back. I felt a bit embarrassed as I had not been away overseas as long as most of the soldiers behind me.
I spent a night in camp near Brisbane and the next day entrained for the long journey to Sydney to spend the next night in the Royal Agricultural Society's buildings on their showgrounds. The following morning I went through a very smooth and efficient demobilisation procedure with a crowd of others, was granted a month's "demob" leave, at the end of which all Army pay would cease, and then walked out into "civvy street" again after almost six years in uniform.
I got a taxi to take me and my baggage to Circular Quay, boarded a Manly ferry, Madge and Alan met me at the other end with a very affectionate welcome and our old Ford car, and in a few minutes I was back home in "San Marino" (49 Greycliffe St, Queenscliff) with Christmas only a few days away.
The Souter family moved out of "San Marino" early in the war and their successors to the tenancy vacated it late in 1942. It was empty for a few months for lack of a buyer or a good tenant. When, finally, Madge did find a reliable person to let it to, he and his wife decided that they liked the house in Bungaloe Avenue ("Wilga") much better, so we left it and moved into "San Marino".
At the beginning of the next week, I reported back to the Shell Company at Shell House, and the question of what position I would be offered, and whereabouts, was discussed with the Manager and Chief Accountant.
In terms of the repatriation law, all returned servicemen were supposed to get any promotions they would have received if they had not enlisted for the war. A Commonwealth free legal sedrvice had been specially created to give them full support and advice on any difficulties or obstruction they might have with their erstwile employers regarding their rights. But the law was "honoured in the breach as much as in the observance" and