Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 501
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[Page 501]
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charming English wife Corinne made me feel that their scenic seaside home, at a secluded part of Port Hacking, was as much mine as theirs, and I spent many enjoyable weekends down there with them and a few of our mutual friends. But Bill retired when his Company was bought by a rival concern (Wormald Bros Ltd) and shortly afterwards he sold his home and eventually went to live in England permanently.
I remained with Automatic Fire Sprinklers under the new management until I voluntarily resigned two years later, at the end of April 1960, having just passed the age of sixty six years.
Towards the end of the following month (18 May) I embarked on the French passenger ship M.V. "Melanesian" for Marseilles calling, en route, at Noumea (New Caledonia), Vila (New Hebrides), Papeete (Tahiti), Colon and Cristobal (Panama Canal), Wilhelmstadt (Curacoa), Martinique (Caribbean), Funchal (Madeira) and passing through the straits of Gibraltar. A voyage that took exactly eight weeks, passing in easy stages right across the Pacific and Atlantic and well into the Mediterranean.
Before I left Sydney one of my friends in the University Club ("Jock" McClemens a Supreme Court Judge) had persuaded me to accompany him in the first twelve days of a Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Europe led by Monsignor Thomas and Archbishop Eris O'Brien. It was due to arrive at Naples, via Suez, a few days after I should arrive at Marseilles, where I tarried two days before travelling by train along the gay and beautiful French and Italian Rivieras in ideal sunny weather to Genoa. After a rest there I deviated to Florence for a day; that ancient city crammed with priceless art treasures where the Renaissance began: I must have walked a dozen miles in seeing its architectural gems, art galleries and museums. Finally, I arrived at the plush hotel "Massimo d'Azeglio" in Rome within an hour of Jock and a section of the pilgrimage arriving there.
During six days in the "Eternal City" we engaged in bus tours to see the usual tourist attractions. The weather was very hot and a few very elderly ladies became too exhausted after the