Thanks to all who came. It is great to see so many of you from every aspect of Dad's life.
Dad - Maurice Adrian Webb - was born in Toowoomba on June 16 1926. He was the second son of Arthur and Bessie Webb - Jack his older brother died some eight years ago; his sister Irene, who is here with us today, was born four years after Dad. He used to say that he was only born in Toowoomba to be near his mother - the truth of that being that his family lived in Ipswich and his mother went to Toowoomba for his birth as most of her family were in that area.
He had fairly normal formative years and began school at age 4 and a half at Blair School.
His interest in sport began here as his father was involved in many areas of sport. Dad began swimming at school at age five.
On many weekends either he or his brother would accompany his father to Manly (where the Webb grandparents lived), on a produce truck from Ipswich to Brisbane and then he would be put on the Pioneer bus to Manly and his father would ride his bike to Manly, collect oysters all weekend and then return to Ipswich. Granddad was on relief work, so every little bit helped. Because of the job situation the whole family finally moved to Manly around 1932, and this is where he stayed until he married some fifteen years later.
The Manly days were full ones for him and it was here that the diversity that was to become his life began in earnest.
He began as a paper boy in his early teens, working for two hours a morning and two hours a night for the wage of around four shillings a week.
Scouting was another important part of his life which began in Manly in 1939. This only lasted 3 months as the troop leader suddenly left the district. He was then able to join the 2nd Wynnum troop and stayed on there for over five years. During this time he rose in the ranks eventually obtaining his King's Scout award. As well as this he became a Cub Instructor. Of the many highlights of his scouting career, what stood out was the number of badges he worked for. The amassed badges lay in a cigarette tin for over fifty years, and then around ten years ago he gave them to Jonathan, a keen scout and son of his nephew Leigh, for his campfire blanket.
The love for scouting was to lead him to become involved in the starting of a troop at Ironside when Kerry wanted to join. He was Barloo and did it for a year until a place for Kerry arose closer to home.
Dad sat for and passed well the scholarship exam in 1939, so 1940 saw him begin high school at Commercial High. As there were no high schools in the Wynnum-Manly area, the choices were Brisbane State High, Commercial High or State Industrial High.
The choice was made easier when they found out that the local grocer's son had a complete set of Commercial High textbooks for sale at a reduced price.
He stayed there until the end of the first term in 1941, but he realized that the family would be helped out by his earning a wage. Later in life he was to return to formal education by way of adult matriculation and began a Commerce degree at Queensland University in 1965. One minor hiccup arose when, to participate in Senior Maths for the adult matriculation, he had to sit the public exam for Junior Maths, so with the help of Kerry's old maths books, Kerry and Tony Burge (then our neighbour and still close friend and at the time a maths teacher at Brisbane Grammar) he passed with flying colours. He completed the first few years of the degree, but time and other commitments put an end to that.
In 1941 he sat for and passed the Telegraph Messenger's Examination, and started work with the District Finance Office in the Department of the Army in April 1941, two months before his fifteenth birthday. Dad was a very loyal person and it was only two years ago that he spoke to me about what might have been had his formal education continued when he was younger.
After a couple of months at the DFO he received an offer of appointment as Telegraph Messenger at the GPO Brisbane. And there he stayed, with a short foray into programming in 1966-67, until the end of his Commonwealth Public Service career in the 1980s, rising from Telegram Boy to managerial positions in the Personnel Branch of the PMG and later Telecom.
Now to Dad's second biggest love in his life. In the mid 1940s Dad followed his brother Jack into the surf movement here at Palm Beach. Others will talk of his career both here and in the wider surf movement. But it obviously was an important part of his life. It not only gave him an ability to shine as a sportsman with two Queensland Belt championships, as well as numerous club and branch honours, but it was in the area of administration that he really shone. However, more important was the fact that through being a Palm Beach life saver over 60 years ago he met, fell in love with and married his wife, Joy.
It was of course also in this environment that I first knew Dad. They tell me he gave me my first surf swim at two weeks old, and I still have memories of being taken by him out beyond the breakers at a very young age and later doing it by myself with no fear at all. We went down the coast most weekends during summer (mostly by train or friends' cars for the first 10 years of my life and then later in our 4 door Morris Minor - I remember the first day we got it, Dad stood Kerry and I beside it and told us in no uncertain terms the painful ramifications of our ever throwing up in this car - and miraculously our chronic carsickness was cured that day). Although Kerry was involved more in the lifesaving side of Dad as a child (being a runner at most carnivals) our childhood was enriched not only by being able to run free around Palm Beach on weekends and during holidays, but our lives were also enriched by the many many friends of Mum & Dad's with whom we interacted and still do, over fifty years later.
The surf movement gave both Mum and Dad the opportunity to travel and to meet and greet dignitaries both here in Australia and overseas.
Kerry will speak more of their interaction, but what I personally got through seeing this side of Dad was an attitude of being a servant in the real sense of the word. Many people literally owe their lives to Dad and of course life savers in general.
Being overseas and interstate for many years I did not have close contact with Dad from my mid twenties until around 9 years ago.
It is in this era that another group of you know Dad. His involvement with this church began with Mum coming here with her friend Marcia and later others from the church would bring her, especially Judith. Dad's involvement was dropping Mum off and picking her up at times. But also at this time Dad' s involvement in Leisure-Time began. He was first a calligraphy student and within a year was asked to teach the class. Always wanting to do things properly, he enrolled in a TAFE course and with that under his belt he took over the class here, only giving it up when his health made his hands too shaky to do a good job. But then he took up the job of taking the money at the door and his interactions during this stage, again, are what many of you will remember.
It was also at this point that his journey to faith began. And I personally cannot begin to thank the members of this congregation who have had this positive input into Dad's life. Though I would have rather that cancer had not been the catalyst for Dad finally coming into a relationship with God, it began with first Bevan, a previous minister here and then Glennis ministering to Dad in his illness that decided him to come first to church and then be a real part of it. My knowledge of this came when Dad started asking me theological questions not to see if he could trip me up with some of the curly issues, but rather when he began really wanting to know what it was all about. This all culminated in a special service some hours before he died which I am sure Glennis will share with you.
Comments or questions to Kerry
December 2005