"LIFE IS PLANNED AHEAD FOR YOU."

 

 

 

John Richard CURTIS
Born:  18 October 1914

 

John Richard Curtis - but everyone called him Dick, except his mother, because she didn't like the name Dick - was born in Maryborough Queensland.  Dick emphasises the Queensland with great pride!  His father was a very hard-working man, who worked as a cane cutter, and other hard jobs of that nature.

 

       Dick had three older sisters and three younger ones, so his mother was kept very busy looking after seven children.  Dick attended Childers Primary School and then Memerambi near Kingaroy.  Dick left school at 14 and started working on a farm where he learnt to ride and train horses.  He loved riding horses and enjoyed horse racing at local shows and gymkhanas (don't say RODEOS, because Dick can't abide the word.)

 

       Dick has a number of scars on his head.  The first one he received was when, as a young man, he was riding his favourite horse in a hurdle race when the horse ahead stumbled and changed direction to avoid a large hole and this in turn affected his horse and Dick was thrown badly - but his horse saved his life by only kicking him in the head and not dragging him along the track.

 

       Scar number two was received when a bomb went off during combat in Greece and scar number three (the largest) happened on 7th March 2000, his first night in Connie Hall Hostel as a matter of fact.  Dick was getting things ready for the next day when he tripped and hit his head of the side of the wardrobe door!  He was rushed to hospital where the doctor had to insert 28 stitches.  Unfortunately these 28 stitches turned into 48 stitches.  The doctor kept asking, “Does it hurts," and Dick replied, "No, I’ve got a very thick skull and besides you have to have something inside your head for it to hurt." Apart from these accidents to his head, Dick has never broken a bone in his body, even though he was a keen boxer, footballer and horse rider, and educator of horses.

 

       During the war, Dick served as a POW for four years in Greece. He maintains that the Aussies never surrendered, they were 'surrendered' by others.  Dick and all those with him nearly starved to death during those hard times and he thanks the Red Cross parcels for keeping them alive.

 

       Dick has many stories to tell about his time as a POW and it would be great to get him to write them down if possible.  The story of how Dick met his wife "fishing off a bridge" is quite delightful, leading as it did to their marriage in 1960.  Sadly, his wife did not enjoy good health and he became a widower.

 

       Dick believes our lives are planned out for us. He says the best thing to do is to enjoy it while you can and make the most of everyday.  Dick's reminiscences of life as a POW display his cheerfulness and ability to make the most of it, even under extremely difficult conditions.

 

 

 

My Life as A P.O.W.

by Dick Curtis

 

First I have to comment on the young fella who spoke about castor oil.  Castor oil was the cure all for everything.   From sore toes to pneumonia to child birth etc.  And now I will get on with my story.  I was from the most beautiful place in Australia, Queensland.  I went into the army very early.  I was over in the Middle East.  From the Middle East we went over to Greece and we didn’t get out of Europe (well I didn’t anyway) for just over 4 years.  We were left high and dry there.  Over 2 thousand Australian all told there were over 7 thousand troops just left there.  And of course we all became Prisoners of War.

 

I was fortunate in a way, as I spent most of my time in Austria.  I was in various working camps.  But before we went into the working camps, we were put into a holding camp.  I can tell you they weren’t the Hilton.  Nothing like the Hilton and the food was nothing like that either.  Basic food for about three or four weeks was a couple of leaves of cabbage boiled in about 20 litres of water.  After about 13 or 14 days I went to the Doctor and he said “What’s the trouble?”  I said, “I haven’t been to the toilet for about 13 or 14 days Doc.”  He said, “What the hell are you worried about you haven’t eaten anything for all that time.”

 

The next place we went to before we got into our permanent area was a place called Salonica up near the Turkish border.  Well there were some troops in before us but they must have been all city boys because they cleared out everything, grass and goodness knows what.  But I, being a country boy, saw the makings of the most delicious meals you could every have.  I don’t know if any of you here grows, portulaca, but it is a small flower similar to a little pansy really, very small.  It is commonly called in the country Pig Weed.  It has a very fleshy stalk, leaves etc.   Boiled up it resembles cabbage.  So I got handfuls of this and boiled it up.  The others wondered what I was going to do with this and I said, “Just watch me!!!”   So I gathered all the Pig Weed growing around the perimeter and I’ve got to say that was one of the best meals I ever had.