Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rex enjoyed the weekly and popular car trip at dusk on the Minlaton to Warooka Road to shoot rabbits and pigeons which he was very adept at skinning and dressing. This was also very helpful in subsidising the fresh weekly food supply. Selwyn, at aged 6, was responsible for retrieving the rabbits and pigeons. 

On the 28th November, 1940, he was transferred to Christ Church, Church of England, Mt. Barker, SA and in early 1941 he was appointed C of E Chaplain for the Woodside Army Base. Later 1941 he enlisted in the Army with the title of Chaplain/Captain/Padre, and was allocated Army No. SX35215. 

The children continued their schooling at Mt. Barker until late 1942 when they relocated to Adelaide and attended Blair Athol School.

In February, 1942, folloiwng a brief training exercise at the Katherine Army Base, NT, Rex went to Timor and then on to New Guinea with the 2/23rd Infantry Battalion, front line, where they chased the Japanese Forces our of Timor and then proceeded to do the same in New Guinea via Wewak and the Kokoda Track. 

He returned home at war's end in the Pacific in 1945 and remained in the Army at the Hampstead Barracks, SA until 18th September, 1946. He helped resettling Army Personnel back into "civvy street" and assisted with arranging war service homes and the farm re-settlement program. He cam home from New Guinea with Malaria and, as he put it, "one buggered knee". 

Rex was very proud of his four Army Service Awards and all his medals. He became a member of the RSL and enjooyed the camaraderie of his fellow ex-servicement and, for many years, conducted the annual Anzac Memorial Dawn service in Adelaide.

Later in 1946, he was appointed Secretary for South Australia of the Australian Board of Missions. He had seen the plight of the New Guineans and appreciated first hand the loyal assistance of the "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels".

He moved into the ABM owned home with his family at 4 Eighth Avenue, St. Peters, SA and also took delivery of a brand new cream 1946 Chevrolet Panel Van suitably sign written and nicknamed "Blondie"- (we all learnt to drive in it). At St. Peters he restored the garden beautifully, growing flowers and vegetables, as well as keeping ducks, chooks and pigeons, which he killed and dressed for the dinner table on special occasions, and there was always an abundant supply of eggs. He was also appointed Chaplain of St. Francis House, at Largs Bay, a home for promising Aboriginal students most of whom went on to be leading sportsmen playing Soccer and Australian Rules Football and a couple became politicians. 

Following the consecration of the Reverend T.T. (Thomas Reed, as Bishop of Adelaide, he was offered T. T. Reed's former parish of St. Theodore's Toorak Gardens and became Rector in early 1954 until his retirement on the 19th May, 1959. He died on the 14th December 1978 at Port Broughton, SA.

Biography completed by Selwyn Harley.