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450SquadronRAAF > George and Meelish
450SquadronRAAF > Sergeant George Albert James OAM Service: Royal Australian Air Force Service Number: 6344 Mustering: Armourer Born: 2 March 1917—London England Enlisted: 20 Nov 1939—Richmond NSW Discharged: 16 Oct 1945 Posting on Discharge: 3 Communications Unit _________________________________________________________________ Born in London during the Great War, George James joined the merchant navy at the age of 16. He travelled the world, and when World War II broke out in Europe, George was discharged in Sydney and joined the RAAF. He served as an Armourer in the Middle East and Italy for the entire war period. Post war, George settled in the suburbs of Sydney where he married and raised five children. He retired to become an extra in television and movies. The following is an extract from the Retirement chapter in his most recent publication, The Lucky Life, Memoirs of a WWII Armourer’ Published 2006. ‘Not long after I was discharged from the Air Force I joined the squadron’s association but did not take an active role in their activities for many years. The Association was not large in numbers but it was widespread across the country with a few members overseas, and every year we had a reunion which I would usually go to. However, it was a great surprise when at the April 1988 General Meeting, when I thought I was safely hidden behind a large pillar, a fellow member nominated me for a position on the executive committee. I did some quick thinking but couldn’t come up with an excuse to decline the nomination so I became a member of “the Committee”. Fair enough, but at the first Committee meeting a couple of months later, the Secretary announced that he had sold his house and was moving out of the district. Again I was caught out and became Secretary for a week or two, or so I thought, “until they could find someone else”. Oh well, June had promised to type my letters for me (in 1948!) so, without asking her this time I appointed her the Secretary’s secretary. This was OK, except that all of the characters who had been running this very active Association for nearly forty years were now closing in on eighty years of age! Relatively speaking, I was but a youngster who had recently turned seventy, so when the publicity officer who had been producing our quarterly newsletter announced that he had to give it up, the Committee were somewhat stymied. I was persuaded to take it over for a while so, with June’s help, we produced our first newsletter — THE HARASSER — in September, 1988. Putting the newsletter together was not too hard as I had previous copies to go by, and I seemed to receive a good number of letters from members with contributions that made up the bulk of the content. The newsletter was printed at the office of the Government Printing Office as a ‘foreign order’ by the son of one of our members, so that part of it was easy. After a few years, however, the Government Printing Office was closed down (surprise! surprise!) and for a reasonable cost, the son of a member continued to photocopy the newsletter, in his own business. Our mailing list averaged about 280, with between 20 and 30 addresses being in the UK., North America, New Zealand or South Africa. The response to the newsletter was very encouraging and it seemed to be widely held that the newsletter kept the Association going. Another duty that I inherited was the organising of functions such as our Annual Reunion and General Meeting in Sydney, and “mini reunions” in October in a different country town each year. I did get some help from members but this declined rapidly with the ageing members. I reluctantly resigned from the Association Committee in 2004, but it was the right time.’ During his years as Secretary of the Association, George was also tasked to compile the Squadron Members’ recollections of their experiences during the war. Here is an extract, one of George’s own recollections, from his book OK Recollections of the Desert Harassers Published in 1996; ‘It was dusk on our first evening at Agnoni and a sort of cloud seemed to rise out of the ground. The ‘cloud’ turned out to be mosquitoes. Dr. Foley, I think it was, had now arrived with others of ‘A’ and ‘B’ Flights and he instructed us not to camp where we were but to move up the nearby escarpment because of the mosquitoes. We (Kershaw, Kirkwood, Webster and myself) had already erected our tent so we left it and went up the hill to spend the night. The next morning our tent had disappeared — a direct hit from a raid overnight.’ George turned 90 years of age, this year and with the love and care of his wife, June and their five children he certainly looks set to do it all over again. Just kidding June! I would like to take this opportunity to salute you George, for all of the wonderful work that you have achieved with the Association over the many years of your active membership. It’s because of your ongoing support that the Association still has an impressive following of no less than 70 Original Squadron Members Congratulations! George received the Order of Australia Medal in 2003 for services to the veterans and families of the 450 Squadron (RAAF) Association.
George and Meelish
450SquadronRAAF > George and Meelish
George and Meelish
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