GRIFFITHS, JACK

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.