Published on Tuesday, 1 July 2025 at 9:05:37 AM
Welcome to #TimeWarpTuesday and our celebration of the recent 2025 Local History Awards. Over the coming weeks we will take a look at the entries and the winners in each of the categories of the Awards. This week we begin with the category of:
Original Research
“Uncle Paddy's Letters Home” by Norma Lyons
- Part One -
“Patrick Charles Joseph LYONS, Paddy, was born on the 9th July 1917. He grew up in Victoria Park. After attending St Joachim’s Catholic primary school, he worked as a labourer. World War II had begun in September 1939 and Australia needed forces for its defence, as well as sending volunteer soldiers overseas to fight in Europe in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). In October 1939 Australia introduced the conscription of single men aged twenty-one and over to the Citizen Military Force (CMF) in order to keep up its strength, as many of the CMF soldiers were joining the AIF to fight overseas. Paddy was enlisted on the 18th of August 1940 with the 11th Battalion (City of Perth Regiment), part of the 13th Brigade of the Citizen Military Force, a militia for the defence of Australia and its protectorates such as Papua New Guinea.
“The Citizen Military Force
“Paddy’s hair is described as fair and his eyes as grey-blue on his enlistment form, in records under his Service Number WX42411. No doubt his brown hair was sun-bleached, with his outdoor work and his swimming. Paddy was, by the age of 23, well known in Perth as a champion surf life-saver at Scarborough, and a winner in long distance swimming events, “swim-thrus” on the Swan River, with a large collection of shiny trophies. Paddy lived with his parents Maggy and Bill, and twin sisters Annie and Kath, at 18 Swansea Street, Victoria Park. Four of his six older sisters – Mary, Maggy, Mabel and Nellie, and older brother Bill, were married. Paddy passed his Medical as A1 the day after enlistment. And he was officially enrolled in the 11th Battalion on the 9th of September 1940.
“A three-month camp was held at Melville No.2 Camp from the 8th of October to the 9th of December. And a further three months from the 16th of April to the 14th July 1941. The Regiment was mobilized for War Service on 15th December 1941 – immediately after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, which began ‘War in the Pacific’, threatening Australia. Paddy was ‘called up’. The Brigade was in camp at Maida Vale at that time. Paddy was in camp again on the 23rd of December. Records show Paddy Absent Without Leave (AWL) on the 26th of February 1942, and again on the 11th of March. On the 17th of March he was AWL for a day and forfeited one day’s pay. In July he was given three days Leave Without Pay. And on July the 30th he was fined two pounds for ‘Wilful Defiance’. In 1942 the 11th Battalion was in training, first at Chidlows. Their role at this stage was to counter-attack any attempted Japanese landing. In May they moved to Moora. There was a brief rest, then back to Moora in July. In late July they began manning the coast, based at Dandaragan until August, then again from November until June 1943.
PH00458-02 Patrick and some of his mates from 11th Battalion at Melville No. 2 Training Camp, late 1940. Donated by Norma Lyons.
Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library Service.
“During his time of military service between August 1940 and February 1946 Paddy clearly wrote home regularly, and received loving letters regularly from members of his family. His address once called up was 11th Battalion, Australian Infantry Forces (AIF). But there must have been many more letters from Paddy sent than the sixty-one that have survived – there are gaps of several months, and Paddy sometimes refers to a previous letter he had sent which is not among this collection. Most are addressed to his mother and begin “Dear Mum”. A few begin “Dear Mum and Family”. There is no evidence of correspondence between him and his father. He frequently mentions members of the family, all of whom he knows will be wanting to read the latest letter.
“These letters that survive were kept by his mother Maggy, then by his sisters Annie and Kathleen, then by his sister Nellie, who handed them on to his niece Barbara, daughter of his sister Maggy. One letter is addressed to Nellie, and maybe this had been handed on to be read by the rest of the family, then kept with the others, or Nellie might have treasured it and later put it with the larger collection when she took it over.
PH00458-04 -18 Swansea Street, East Victoria Park, after the exterior was painted, c. 1950s.
Donated by Norma Lyons. Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library Service.
“Defending the Coast
“Eight of the letters were written from his training camps in the West Australian bush in 1942 – the first on June the 20th from ‘in the scrub’ at Moora. They were in training for guerilla warfare. He vaguely refers to a few “stunts … you might have read about them in the paper.” This could refer to accidents – someone received a broken collarbone. He complains of the cold, and having caught two colds, and of having been nearly run down by a truck. He asks his mother to collect a swimming trophy from Harris Scarf and Sandovers before the 1st of July. And he hopes for Leave soon. In another letter from ‘the scrub’ he tells how they searched day and night for a fellow lost for two days, who was found “a bit shaken up”. He complains of shovelling gravel, and of “wicked mossies” which “nearly managed to carry me off the other night.” Another time they go kangaroo hunting with little success, and see plenty of rabbits. Paddy says to tell Lucy and Peggy, his little nieces, that he tried to catch a couple of small ones for them. In August he is pleased to say he will have three days Leave the next week and asks to have his suit pressed. But in the next week’s letter he says that was a mistake – he won’t be coming home until three weeks.
“Later in the year, still from camp in the bush, Paddy writes that they have been playing football, and Paddy has been remarked on as playing a good game. And at a sports afternoon he has won the mile run. It is not all good news - “It’s dangerous as two boys have been shot one at the beach and one at camp.” And the discomfort of it all is always there. In October he complains of the blowflies and their maggots: “… they blow your blankets and plates … and keep buzzing in your ears.” Once again, he has to say he won’t be home in three weeks after-all, but hopes to get eight days Leave in a month or two. They have just had a one-hundred mile route march to the beach - “baking in the sun”. He got sunburnt. After the third day, and then with another twenty-two mile march, he was sent back to camp to train for the one mile Brigade running championship, to be held in “the Big Smoke”. He starred again in the football final. Some of the men were keeping young kangaroos in camp, and Paddy says he’d love to get one for Lucy and Peggy. At the end of one letter he says: “I hope Father still has the garden going …”, looking forward to home-grown potatoes and green peas. He signs off “From the Bad Lad of the Bush, Paddy”.
“The 11th Brigade was again manning the coast from November 1942 until January 1943. Paddy wrote that he would not be home for Christmas, but hopes to be in Perth for a sports meeting on January the 16th. He asks for “a Xmas cake, a bottle of tomato sauce and a few nuts.” He writes again about a sports meeting where he came third in a mile race, winning a canteen order worth five shillings. And of the football final which they won by twelve goals, but where he crashed into another player – “it knocked me rotten I had to be taken off the field I’m alright now.” But after a five-course sports dinner and “lots of tonic was I crook”.
“Then they returned to Perth in February to prepare for leaving for Darwin. No doubt the family, and his friends - including his girlfriend Pat, turned out at Perth Station to farewell their loved Paddy. On the 3rd of March 1943 Paddy writes to “Dear Mum and Family” and tells of his trip over the Nullarbor: “We stopped off at a niggers camp and had a wongie to them.” They watched the Aborigines throwing spears, and he calls them “wicked”, seemingly because they don’t wash – water being scarce. He jokes to tell Lucy and Peggy about a little picaninny: “I had a sweet little one under my wing when one of the big bucks started chasing me and I had to drop him so see they nearly had a little cousin.” “I had about five days in the big city it is a beautiful place.” This must be Adelaide. He says the people there are friendly and social and sports-loving. They have surf clubs. Paddy’s mates Digger, Tubby, and Lefty send their regards. Mac is also there. These mates had met the family on a picnic, and are looking forward to another when they all return home.
PH00458-05 Paddy Lyons (centre) and mates, Lefty and Tubby, members of the 2/11 Battalion’s Band, WWII c. 1943-45
Donated by Norma Lyons. Local History Collection, Town of Victoria Park Library Service.
“Defending Darwin
“In December 1941 the Japanese had bombed targets throughout the Pacific, as well as the American fleet at Pearl Harbour on December the 7th. Women and children were evacuated from Darwin. The first disastrous Japanese raids on Darwin began on the 19th of February 1942. Australian and American military units hurried to reinforce the defence there, with rough airfields being cleared to the south, and those existing improved. Aircraft and servicemen amassed from the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Air Force, American units, and the Dutch. Paddy was with the 11th Battalion with other forces from all over Australia in the Northern Territory to defend Darwin from Japanese invasion over nineteen months, from March 1943 until late November 1944.
The City of Perth Regiment was first based 85km south of Darwin on the Adelaide River. This formed part of the second of three rings for Darwin’s protection. Later they had amphibious landing training at Mindil Beach, Darwin. Twenty of Paddy’s letters are from the Northern Territory. On the 2nd of January 1944 Paddy writes home that everything is “honky dory”, even after too much Christmas fare has given him a “crook head”. “I got your letter, Joe Blake, paper and the wallet OK thanks very much.” [“Joe Blake” is rhyming slang for “snake” or even “steak”, but that does not fit here. Maybe a brand of tobacco?] He reports on a sports carnival – football, soccer, basketball, cricket, tennis, swimming, and hockey. Paddy won a heat in the back-stroke, but was just beaten in the final by the New South Wales champion. Digger, however, won the three-mile race, ahead of an Eastern States champion, but after this race Digger “partly went out to it” because of the heat. Paddy watched the boxing championships where the losers “take a horrible bashing”. Tubby has been in hospital with a poisoned finger, and Lefty is “writing to a bundle of sheilas.” Paddy thinks he’ll be home in February, and signs off: “Hoping to see you soon, Your Loving Son, Paddy.”
“When Paddy writes to thank his mother for Christmas presents, which came late due to a change of camps, he is “down in the dumps”. He has made her a pendant, which he has posted. A friend at home, Steve, is engaged to be married, and he asks after others. By April of 1944, over a year now in the Northern Territory, Paddy is more “down in the dumps”: “It’s a battle to get a smile out of me now. The first three weeks was alright but I was just kidding myself along. She’s a different tale now.” “Tubby’s gone haywire already.” In another letter after Easter when he thinks of his family all gathered at Scarborough “soaking down a few” he writes: “I’d like to show them what a drinker really is, I’ve haven’t had a nip for over three weeks now.” They get a ration of beer - Paddy may have stopped after being “crook” from overdoing his drinking. The work sounds hard: “I’ve just come back with the boys after being on the axe for a week. Did I give that wood Larry Dooley.” Tubby is in the cook-house, Lefty is working on the roads. They are camped by the river, so they try fishing – without luck, and never miss the opportunity for a swim, and they go kangarooing. They have had Leave in town [presumably Darwin], and gotten into trouble. After sight-seeing with Tubby and Lefty, they must have been drinking heavily - they “could have done more damage at Coleman’s” [which seems a reference to their local pub back home], they “Had dinner at the old Jail house … it’s a good place (to keep out of).” Lefty had climbed a coconut tree and got three, and they swam in the ocean – “it reminded me of South Beach.” On Easter Monday Paddy was lucky to go to a race meeting. There was a crowd of five to six thousand – “a bigger crowd than Goodwood.” There was betting with “a five-shilling tote.” Also “ten games of two up, Crown and Anchor, etc.” Paddy won four quid.
“Paddy replies to his sister Nell [who apparently has asked what happened between him and his girl Pat] in a letter to Mrs A. Lemmey, Mundaring, on the 16th of June 1944. It is sixteen months since Paddy left Perth, and it seems Pat has fallen for someone else. Nelly, close in age to Paddy, would have moved in the same circle of friends. He writes: “I knew there would be a change of things in a fellas absence. I’ve been receiving letters and parcels since I arrived and not bad ones either, but they gradually started to get uninteresting so I sent a telegram this morning just to say everything was OK with me, and no hard feelings, but I was not anxious to write anymore. So that’s the plot in a nutshell. If you or the mob ever see Pat, speak to her as friends like before, as she’s not a bad kid.” He goes on with six more pages of news. Then in a letter to his mother who seems to have asked of the same matter, he refers her to “ask Nell.” On the 12th of June he tells his mother he is “’tip-top’ although I’d rather be down at the Vic Park or Carlisle.” News is mainly of being camped at the lagoon. He went swimming twice a day. “A fishing party brought back twenty-one dozen, so last night we had a fish supper.” A barbecue is to be held where they take their own beer – “three big Buffaloes”. Also a swimming carnival is coming up. Good news is that they have progressed from “Learners” class in the band – Paddy plays the drums - and are now “advanced”. “The mosquitos are giving me larry-dooley.” But they do have nets for sleeping.
“Paddy tells Nell about the “pretty lagoon” they had been camped by. There was marching, but also a sports carnival in which he led a team, the programme of which he includes. It was followed by a barbecue where “the steaks were under-done. The CO gave a talk and gave myself and a few of the swimmers a good wrap up.” Then they got drunk, followed by “many blues” … “so you see we still get a few laughs up here.” He still hopes to be home soon. But the letters home continue. The day after his birthday, the 9th of July - his twenty-seventh, he writes home and askes his Mum to thank Nellie, Maggy and Mabel for their telegrams, and her for a cake and pullover. He says “we made a hog of it when the cake arrived”. He asks for Billie’s address. [Brother Bill was a navvy on the Great Southern Railway, moving from camp to camp.] Two letters to his mother are regarding her sending a tiny spare spring for his clippers, and he thanks her for that. Paddy refers to playing the drums – “on the musical side of things there is going to be a N.T. band competition in August. At present they’ve got me on the Side drums, Bass drum, Cymbal, Triangle and bells at the same time.”
“Entertainment is appreciated by the men. In July “a concert was given by Miss Marjory Lawrence the world-renowned singer”. She sat on a couch, being paralysed, and sang fifteen songs. A very large crowd had travelled long distances. He liked it, but in the intervals between singing there was a pianist playing classical music, and that “didn’t appeal to me”. “Tivoli entertained us again with a change of programme.” There was a swing band and “pictures”, and a supper of “hamburger with eggs and all sorts of cakes also oranges.” The authorities had put a stop to two-up, “so Housy Housy is all the go now.” In October he tells of good movies – “Foot Light Serenade” with Betty Grable, and “Pop Always Pays”. And they had a Vaudeville show - the Porter mob “with twenty-one sheilas”. Digger went on stage with the magician. They had a couple of days at the beach, ate oysters off the rocks, and “got stuck in a mango plantation” - Paddy says “my tummy’s crooked at me”. He is pleased with their new canteen, with billiards, table tennis, quoits, and “the old original game of two-up out the back.” He has read in the “West” that five of his mates are prisoners of war, including John and Jim Gilmore and Jim Dore. He thinks that Jim is lucky to be in prison in Japan, as Jim’s cobber has died of illness in the islands.
“By the 22nd of August 1944 Paddy is obviously despondent about not getting back home, but he tries to remain cheerful: “I suppose Father is keeping the beer up at Coleman’s cool for us when we come down again.” He would like to be “down there putting away a few noggins.” He tells of a session on Saturday night when he “passed out early” from too much “Gibbey’s” and got lost fifty yards from his hut. He was rescued and carted home, and was “crook” the next day – “Never again though”! Tubby was in hospital again, this time with pain in the stomach. He reports that the picture show was good the night before, especially a newsreel on the invasion of France – “They give them Huns a bit of Larry alright.” And the movies were Deanna Durban in “His Butler’s Sister”, and “At the Circus” - a good laugh. He writes “Tell Aunty I haven’t seen a fly all the time I’ve been up.” Paddy asks his mother to send photos of his trophies – “I forget what they look like now.” And he thinks of his young days, of being ducked by his older sisters swimming in the river at Como.
“The beer is plentiful in town, “but not as good as EB or lager”. The hotels are not as good because of “having no lounges for the lounge lizards.” There is even grog available after hours out of town. “There are a bundle of girls here … I fell in love with a girl named Dawn, she looks like Ann Sheridan the film star.” And the Australian Comforts Fund have a place to eat, shower, shave, etc. They were treated to a “Tivoli show with 14 chorus girls straight from Sydney”. And the picture shows improved, such as “Wings for the Eagles” and Deanna Durban in “The Amazing Mrs Halliday.” After “Tubby had pack drill for being a bad little boy” they went to watch Dot Lamour and Bob Hope in “I’ve got you Covered”. He writes how swimming with the strong tides doubles his speed. And how they “tea-leaved” fourteen coconuts, but after over-indulging on them “I was sore in the comic cuts (no more for me thanks).” Paddy describes mosquitos “as big as aeroplanes”, and says they are having fun catching butterflies and robbing bird nests. He refers to the “pretty little sheila” he told his Mum about before, when he had fell for her, writing that he is now over it, and will return single and happy – “I don’t think you would like her anyway.” Him and his mates have reminisced on the march, the picnic at The Lakes, and the dance, where Mac had passed out, before they left home. They hope for a similar occasion when they return – “just to make up for what we’ve lost.” Then in October they had been at the beach for eight days, expecting a holiday but instead were being drilled in bayonet training. They collected a bag of mangos. Lefty tried climbing a tree for coconuts but “all he got was a few splinters in his ‘never mind’.” And Tubby is “a mass of Theatre Royals, looks as though he’s going to a fancy-dress ball with all his bandages. Talk about a sooky kid …”. [“Theatre royals” being boils.] He thanks his mother for sending combs, and mentions receiving letters from his sister Nell and her daughter June.
“In November Paddy writes that Tubby and Lefty have set up a “National Cleaning Depot”, charging “sixpence an article with sox tossed in”. In a later letter he jokes that they have gone broke “because I’ve started opposition at a threepenny rate” - claiming he puts the dirty clothes on and swims in them three or four laps to wash them. But it has all dragged on too long. “I couldn’t say how long I’ll last as she’s starting to get a bit tough without any leave.” Paddy writes this on the 14th November. He has been to watch boxing with Digger and Mac, but it was “not up to scratch”. The wrestling was better – the “big bloke” poured a bucket of water over his opponent. Paddy thinks Jimmy, Maggy’s husband, would have enjoyed it. There has been a concert with “a sheila in it, or rather a fella dressed up as a girl, he sure looked slashing.” He writes again about a sports meeting where he came third in a mile race, winning a canteen order worth five shillings. And of the football final which they won by five goals, but where he crashed into another player – “it knocked me rotten I had to be taken off the field I’m alright now.” But the rain has poured down solidly for two hours in a storm – “I’ll be sleeping under my bed tonight.” On the 23rd of November: “No news of any leave yet.” Playing football Paddy hurt his ankle and got “two days no duties” to the envy of Tubby and Lefty. Lefty is captain of the basketball team. But “the national game is now softball.”
“On a Saturday night they enjoyed a “‘Bungarra supper’, the chief cook being Lefty, with Tubby as offsider, it was that delicious.” He jokes about going out next hunting for bardies. The latest picture was “Holiday Inn”, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astair – “a swell show”. They had been to a swimming pool. The Band formed a team to play softball against another platoon, and won by one run, with Lefty scoring a home run. “The rain is still coming regular as clockwork at five o’clock in the afternoon … batten down or get washed away.” And he had a few beers with Mac and Tubby.”
- End Part One -
Next week’s #TimeWarpTuesday will feature the second part of the story of Patrick Charles Joseph Lyons – or Uncle Paddy, one of our brave local heroes of Victoria Park and districts that have protected Australia and our freedoms in times of war and conflict.
We hope you enjoy this celebration of Local History, and the work of those who have taken the time, talent and energy to submit entries into the 2025 Local History Awards and thus helped us record our stories for the benefit of all those to come. We can tell the stories, because you care and have shared with us in the first place.
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