When a primary school education lasts seven years and a couple of brothers are enrolled for a couple of those years, can you still claim them as yours?
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Of course you can.
In 1942-1943 as Sydney residents feared that a Japanese invasion was imminent, one family sent their two boys to live far away from the danger of World War 2 to the small, rural hamlet of Ross Glen.
The boys were John and Brian Freedman and they came north to live with their grandparents John and Eva McInnes and cousin Jack who owned and ran a sawmill on the Camden Haven River. Many sawmills dotted the North Coast in those days and the boys would have roamed freely through the beautiful forests of the area.
The boys were enrolled at Kew Public School which is about three kilometres north of Ross Glen. We know all this because in early September, 2017 we held a reunion for the little one-teacher bush school which closed 50 years previously. They attended along with John’s wife Wendy.
During the afternoon, it became clear that these were no ordinary brothers hence this article and hence our claiming them and their achievements as our own.
John born in 1935 played for the Wallabies in 1962 against NZ as well as South Africa the following year. In touring Rhodesia and SW Africa, John captained the team in various matches.
His involvement in Rugby continued as a member of the Australian Coaching panel, Past President of NSW Rugby Union and as a manager of the Wallabies in the 1973 tour of England, Wales and Italy.
When former students of Kew Public School hosted a reunion recently, there were a few surprises.
After excelling in Rugby, John turned his attention to sailing where he crewed 3 Australian yachting challenges in the America’s Cup off Rhode Island, USA. The yacht names will bring back memories with Dame Pattie 1967, Gretel 11 in 1970 and 1977.
John was awarded an OAM for services to Rugby in 1987.
Brian Freedman married a local Ross Glen girl Rosemary Warlters in 1961 as a 24 year old.
His forte was in cricket whereupon he played from 1952 as a fifteen year old at Bankstown District Cricket Club becoming President in 1982. From that he became a member of the NSW Cricket Board (1996-2004), the Australian Cricket Board (1997- 2004) and managed the Australian Under 19 team in their tours against England (1999), Sri Lanka (2000), NZ (2002) and India and Bangladesh (2004).
The strong sporting genes were passed on to his son David who represented NSW on 50 occasions. He was a left arm wrist spinner who took 170 wickets including 7/49 against the West Indies.
Brian began a scheme in 2005, which continues today, of transporting unwanted cricket gear to Uganda from Bankstown District Cricket Club.
Like his brother John, Brian too was awarded an Order of Australia in 2004 for services to cricket and the community.
So, Ross Glen and Kew are pleased these two were evacuated to our area and we feel a great pride in their achievements.
One of the Kew Reunion quiz questions referred to the trench created on the western boundary of the school grounds in which the students practised their evacuation drills in case of an enemy attack during WW2.
