PRICE, JACK AND GRIFFITHS, JACK
B/W Postcard. Studio portrait of 'Little' Jack Price and Jack Griffiths. Fair haired Jack Price, in dark three piece suit, white shirt and bow tie with watch chain and medallion attached to the buttons of his waistcoat, is standing next to a dark haired Jack Griffiths in dark suit and collar and tie who is sitting on a carved stool next to Jack Price. On the rear is stamped [Burlington Studio/121 Barrack Street Perth].
John Lloyd Price was born in 1889 near Oswestry, North Wales. A small man, being 5 feet 4 inches tall, he was known in Claremont as 'Little Jack' distinguishing him from his Welsh friend, Jack Griffiths. He worked at Rome's Dairy and was friendly with the Carter family who lived in Hay St (now Lakeway) and later Second Avenue, Claremont. When WWI broke out he enlisted in Perth in March 1915 (Service No. 364) trained at Blackboy Hill and embarked from Australia on 9 June 1915 as a private in the 28th Battalion. He left Alexandria on 4 September for Gallipoli where he was wounded on 26 October. He was admitted to 7 Field Ambulance Hospital suffering a mouth injury, broken ribs and a chest wound, transferred to the General Hospital in Gibraltar in December for some 30 days, and then to a London Hospital before rejoining his unit in March 1916. He was briefly hopitalised on a number of occasions suffering from impetigo. On 10 August 1917 he was transferred to the Australian Veterinary Corps and served at the Australian Veterinary Hospital in Calais. From May to August 1919 he was granted leave to farm in Wales and was discharged in London 12 November 1919 having given his intended residence as Llansaintffridd, North Wales. John Owen Griffiths was born near Oswestry, North Wales. He worked at Rome's Dairy and was friendly with the Carter family who lived in Hay St (now Lakeway) Claremont. When WWI broke out he was working as a farm hand at Brunswick Junction and enlisted at Bunbury on 25 October, 1916, having previously been refused on the grounds of 'flat feet'. Trained at Blackboy Hill, he embarked at Fremantle on 29 December 1916 as private No.3043 in the 3rd Pioneers Battalion. He arrived in England in March 1917 and proceeded to France in May. There he was wounded in action (gassed) twice and was hospitalised with shell shock. He returned to Australia in mid 1919 and was discharged on 15 August 1919. In later life he lived on a small property in Wattle Grove and maintained his friendship with Mary (Polly) Carter's family.
