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have been a Cambridge graduate. He came to North Queensland, taking up a position at
Charters Towers, which was booming as a gold-mining town. Was there my grandfather,
another William John, was born. Apparently JW senior wasn't the perfect father, did not give
my grandfather much in the way of education and from tales told was an errant husband.'
In his next letter, having conferred with Alma, John made some emendations to the above. He
wrote in August: ' My aunt who was Alma Honeycombe and has always treated me as a son
says that her grandfather's name was John Honeycombe... This is the one I thought had been to
Cambridge, but that is incorrect my aunt informs me. It was her mother's father who went
there... (John) married an Irish girl by the name of Mary Casey and I think he died in Western
Australia.' John went on to mention Bob Honeycombe in Charters Towers - 'I think he knows a
fair bit of the family history."
Now John knows it all.
In his first letter to me he said: 'My wife, Beth, is expecting a baby in July. We are anxiously
looking forward to this happy event.' In August he wrote, having sent me a photograph: 'As you
will see, Beth and I have recently become proud parents. Beth is still in Hospital. I expect her
home next week.'
That baby, the first of the next generation, was christened David John; he was born on 29 July
1964 in Ayr.
John had met Beth (Elizabeth Nancy Ford) in September 1959; he was just 23 and she 19.
Like Len, John married a girl who sang in a choir and was the daughter of a Shire Council
official. Like some other Honeycombe wives, John's wife was an inch taller than he. He told me
how their meeting occurred.
'Queensland was celebrating its centenary as a state - up to 1859 it had been a penal colony -
and the Queensland Government asked Princess Alexandra to visit the festivities as an official
guest. And they asked the Rotary Club in each town to select a young man and woman to
represent each shire, to go as a guest of the State, and of the Rotarians in Brisbane, to the
centenary celebrations, which included a ball and a garden party. I knew of Beth, but I'd never
met her, never seen her. Beth's father was very well known, as he'd been Shire chairman for
quite a long time (in fact from 1952 to 1970)... She was the
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only daughter, had two brothers. Well, we were the two selected to go to Brisbane. We rang
each other and tried to meet beforehand, but it didn't work out, as I had to attend a six-week
course in Melbourne with International Harvester before the event. I flew to Brisbane from
Melbourne. It was Len's idea that I do the course, a training course for new employees held at a
motortruck and tractor factory and at the head office. I took Beth to a garden party at the old
Government House. Princess Alexandra was there, and it was quite a grand affair, with a
military band, flags flying, and cups of tea. We went to the official ball together and to various
functions and displays.' One was the Gundoo Festival Youth Rally held at the Exhibition
Grounds on Sunday, 6 September, at 3.0pm. Six years later they named their first real home
Gundoo.
'When we came back to Ayr, we were asked to give speeches to the various Rotary Clubs,
telling them about our experiences. Then there was a ball at the Ayr Water Festival: we were
guests of the committee. We started going together then. But from the beginning I'd thought
there was something more to the relationship. We went out for four years and got engaged a
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