 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
bought for sixpence; tin kettles were a shilling each; six glass tumblers were 1/6; a woollen vest
cost 2/9, and a pair of silk bloomers 6/9.
Meanwhile, Len Honeycombe had joined the Senior Cadet Force in March 1920, though he
was still working fulltime at the store. His medical record then, when he was 13, reveals that he
was 4'11" and weighed six stone; yet he had a four-inch chest expansion. After doing the
equivalent of about 40 days of drills and other training Len was invalided out in July 1922,
having suffered from typhlitis. Perhaps his stay at Thornburgh College was also curtailed
because of this.
Two months earlier, on 22 May 1922, Rene Honeycombe, aged 22, had married Horace
Walter Horn in Ayr.
He was an ex-London policeman and was about 12 years older than Rene; he was also much
taller. She and Alma were both less than five feet tall. A Police Sergeant, Horace had come to
Australia before the war and had been posted to Townsville, where he and Rene had met, She
had moved thither when Mr Dean opened an office there. She travelled around the state with
him, to wherever he was posted; they were the first of the family to own a car. They also had
two children, a boy and a girl, and eventually settled in Brisbane. Rene, having made her
escape, never returned to live in Ayr.
Bill, who was 18 in 1922, was also reluctant to be involved in the family store, letting Len, Bill
Aitken and Dave Tosh deliver produce around the town, fetch fresh supplies from the station,
and assist Esther and Alma with heavy weights and tasks. It seems that after doing an abortive
apprenticeship as a carpenter, he worked as a locomotive driver for a sugar mill. Jobs were
hard to come by after the war, and he had perforce to live at home. Then, on 1 May 1924,
when he was 20, Bill was officially apprenticed in Ayr as a dental mechanic to 'surgeon dentist'
Alfred Turner for a period of five years.
The articles of indenture could be cancelled by mutual consent on one month's notice. But Bill
stuck it out, diverting himself by playing football and tennis, by going to the pictures, by taking
part in musical evenings at the home of Bessie and Frank Smith, and by singing in a choir.
The next of Esther's children to marry was Alma, who now worked in the office of
Honeycombes (renamed the Progressive Store) as a clerk. She had become a dominant force in
the grocery business, and as well as being ever cheerful, she was very astute. The wedding took
place in the Church of All Saints in Ayr on 3 September 1929; Alma was 27. Her husband,
who was two years older and is described in the marriage certificate as a 'shop assistant', was
Lloyd Wilson.
Lloyd was born in Clifton, south of Toowoomba; his father was a grazier (cattle) in southwest
Queensland, near Dalby, and in the mid-twenties Lloyd used to come north to visit a sister, who
had married a cane-farmer in Ayr. He
369
and Alma met at church services and dances, and after a few holidays spent with his sister, and
several outings with Alma, he proposed. He failed to tell her he was diabetic, but she found out
after the marriage, as he used to inject himself with insulin every day.
Lloyd Wilson seems not to have had a strong constitution, and though lively, not to have been
very strong-willed. For the bridal couple not only moved into Esther's house to stay but both
also continued to work in the store, Alma in the office. The store had expanded by then, in size
and business, and Esther now employed a trained young grocer, Charlie Macpherson, who was
 |