Robert George Clarke

   Another name for Robert is Bob.

  General Notes:

By Wendy Ellen-Mae Phillips, his wife

Robert George Clarke, known as Bob, was born in Nundah Cottage Hospital, Brisbane, but the family moved to Hervey Bay in 1948. He had an idyllic childhood with a few major exceptions: at age 6 he seriously burnt his legs jumping into an ash pit at the local sawmill and spent six months in bed, having to learn to walk all over again. He also got bitten by a brown snake once. He was an inventive and industrious boy; built his own crystal radio and 20 foot aerial, and a flying fox from the house to the laundry to save his mother from having to lug washing down the stairs. Unfortunately, on its trial run with a full basket of dirty clothes it demolished the laundry wall! While in primary school he delivered papers and worked in the local nursery for pocket money, and also planted and cared for a vegetable garden at home that supplied most of the family's vegetables. In high school he worked with his father as a painter over school holidays.

After finishing his Junior Certificate, still aged 14, he applied for various clerical jobs and was accepted by the Commonwealth Bank with the proviso that he came to Sydney. His early years boarding away from his family were hard, but he soon learnt to stand on his own two feet; except, perhaps, for the time he was on relief during the Snowy Mountains Scheme in Khancoban at age 17, had a bit too much to drink and was led home on his hands and knees with a rope tied around his neck :-). He had a wonderful time in the bank for many years, travelling everywhere including Papua New Guinea where he met me. I was fifteen when he came into the local milkbar where I had an after-school job and asked me if I wanted to go to a Bank of NSW party on Saturday night. I said I'd have to ask my mother, thinking no way would she let me, and he said, “where is she, I'll ask her.” He started off, then remembered he didn't even know my name. Without the slightest sign of embarrassment he turned back and asked me, fronted my mother, who to my amazement said yes, and the rest, as they say, is history☺.

His adventurous times in the bank came to an end when he wound up stuck in Stock and Share Department, Sydney, for what looked like the rest of his banking career. He left to work in conveyor belting, including some coal mine work while I continued to run our child care centre. This eventually led to a job with J. J. Richards here in Brisbane, where he studied for his engineering certificate, and became their maintenance and fabrication expert for all their recycling plants.

Refer to my home page at http://www.wendyclarke.com for more about Bob and our family, and a funny story about his childhood in Hervey Bay, called “Gone Fishing”.

  Some facts about his life were:

• Education: Junior Certificate Pialba State School QLD, Certificate of Engineering 2004.

• Occupation: Commonwealth Bank officer when he left school, and is now a fabrication and maintenance engineer for JJ Richards.

• Religion: christened Church of England.

Robert married Wendy Ellen-Mae Phillips, daughter of Richard Arthur Phillips and Sheila Margaret Clyne, on 16 Dec 1967 in St Andrew's Church Of England, Lakemba, New South Wales.²⁸⁶ (Wendy Ellen-Mae Phillips was born on 17 Apr 1949 in Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia ²⁸⁷ and was christened in R C Church, Katoomba.)