Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Francis Roy was born in Wollongong on 6th December 1924. His father Tom was a coal miner. He had 2 sisters and one brother. Life was very tough during the Great Depression and he often went hungry. Bill attended Wollongong Public School and then Wollongong Technical High School. He became an apprentice radio repairman at Lindsay and Bruce, Wollongong, and gained a certificate from the Australian Radio College. During this time he was a lifesaver and lifesaving instructor at North Wollongong Beach and learned ballroom dancing where he met his future wife Jean. On 10th December 1942 he joined the Citizen Air Force and a few months later the RAAF. He said that he was forced to join the Army at first and was sent to Broadmeadows for training but managed to make it clear he wanted to remain in the RAAF. During the war he served in airfields in the Northern Territory including Coomallie. He became a radar and radio installer on aircraft and at 19 he was the youngest electrical inspector of aircraft. He would be up at 3 a.m. some days, refusing to attend parade or roll call, working on the aircraft. Officers overlooked his failure to appear when required and refusal to salute officers as his service was invaluable. Darwin became a non-saluting base and I believe this was because of Bill's objections. He often spoke of how terrible it was living in a tent in the heat and humidity and how a person he was sharing a tent with went troppo and was going to shoot him. After that he got his own tent. Every morning his boots would be full of mould. In 1946 he was discharged and returned to Lindsay and Bruce in Wollongong for a time before joining the P.M.G. as a trainee technician. He worked on many radio stations, on Posts and Telegraphs and studied to become an electrical engineer. He installed Broken Hill's first television station and returned later to convert it to colour TV signals. He was in charge of installling the electrical equipment in Telecom Tower, Canberra, and became its first Chief Technical Officer. Bill was always concerned about the environment and had an interest in native plants. He was able to run marathon distances right into his 60s.