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| Sterling and Brenda's only son was born 10 months after they married (luckily at this censorious time, he was not premature like their next child!). A month after his birth, World War II started. Sterling enlisted on 11 July 1940((https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4640026)) and served as a Gunner((https://www.army.gov.au/our-people/australian-army-rank-structure/other-ranks)) in the [[wp>2/9th_Field_Regiment_(Australia)|2/9 Field Regiment]].((http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?ServiceId=A&VeteranId=175805. For a history of the Regiment, see http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1507941719870~632&locale=en_GB&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true)) He served in the Middle East for over a year, as well as in South Australia and North Queensland. As far as is known, he did not see his wife or son again until 1945.\\ | Sterling and Brenda's only son was born 10 months after they married (luckily at this censorious time, he was not premature like their next child!). A month after his birth, World War II started. Sterling enlisted on 11 July 1940((https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4640026)) and served as a Gunner((https://www.army.gov.au/our-people/australian-army-rank-structure/other-ranks)) in the [[wp>2/9th_Field_Regiment_(Australia)|2/9 Field Regiment]].((http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?ServiceId=A&VeteranId=175805. For a history of the Regiment, see http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1507941719870~632&locale=en_GB&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true)) He served in the Middle East for over a year, as well as in South Australia and North Queensland. As far as is known, he did not see his wife or son again until 1945.\\ |
| {{:slide_16_esmp_uniform.jpg?300|}} ES M-P shortly after he enlisted, c.1940 ((Provenance: J. Godden))\\ | {{:slide_16_esmp_uniform.jpg?250|}} ES M-P shortly after he enlisted, c.1940 ((Provenance: J. Godden))\\ |
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| Sterling had thrived amidst mates from very different backgrounds and in highly physical work, and returned a very different man. With the war's end, he was discharged from the army on 6 November 1945.((Certificate of Discharge, provenance J. Godden)) He was re-employed at Perpetual but found being confined to a desk job difficult. On the advice of his brother-in-law, he used almost all of his and his wife's money to buy a dairy farm from a relative of his brother-in-law's wife. The date of the purchase could later be seen as prophetic: 1 April 1949.((ESM-P,letter to tax office, 1956. Provenance E.S. M-P to J. Godden.)) The farm was at Hydes Creek, four miles from [[wp>Bellingen,_New_South_Wales|Bellingen]]. Sterling, Brenda, their son and daughter moved there; a second daughter was born nearly two years later. The farm was never a viable proposition, despite the efforts of agricultural researchers to find alternative crops, and became less so with the inexorable decline of the North Coast dairy industry. While he thrived on the outdoor life and went from total inexperience to a highly respected farmer, Sterling's big achievement was to wrest a minimal living from infertile land. He only once, in the late 1960s, accepted a desk job to tide the family over a specially bad drought. His wife and son had a particularly challenging time due to their huge decline in living conditions: Hydes Creek had no electricity until 1962; the roads were untarred; and when he entered High School their son had to undertake a long commute to Coffs Harbour High School, involving bike, bus and train. Dairy cows need to be milked twice a day and the family could not afford any help; in later years Sterling made a yearly trip to Sydney to see his widowed mother, but Brenda rarely had a day away from the farm. Even when bitten by a red-back spider, she had to drive herself to Bellingen Hospital while the rest of the family did the milking.\\ | Sterling had thrived amidst mates from very different backgrounds and in highly physical work, and returned a very different man. With the war's end, he was discharged from the army on 6 November 1945.((Certificate of Discharge, provenance J. Godden)) He was re-employed at Perpetual but found being confined to a desk job difficult. On the advice of his brother-in-law, he used almost all of his and his wife's money to buy a dairy farm from a relative of his brother-in-law's wife. The date of the purchase could later be seen as prophetic: 1 April 1949.((ESM-P,letter to tax office, 1956. Provenance E.S. M-P to J. Godden.)) The farm was at Hydes Creek, four miles from [[wp>Bellingen,_New_South_Wales|Bellingen]]. Sterling, Brenda, their son and daughter moved there; a second daughter was born nearly two years later. The farm was never a viable proposition, despite the efforts of agricultural researchers to find alternative crops, and became less so with the inexorable decline of the North Coast dairy industry. While he thrived on the outdoor life and went from total inexperience to a highly respected farmer, Sterling's big achievement was to wrest a minimal living from infertile land. He only once, in the late 1960s, accepted a desk job to tide the family over a specially bad drought. His wife and son had a particularly challenging time due to their huge decline in living conditions: Hydes Creek had no electricity until 1962; the roads were untarred; and when he entered High School their son had to undertake a long commute to Coffs Harbour High School, involving bike, bus and train. Dairy cows need to be milked twice a day and the family could not afford any help; in later years Sterling made a yearly trip to Sydney to see his widowed mother, but Brenda rarely had a day away from the farm. Even when bitten by a red-back spider, she had to drive herself to Bellingen Hospital while the rest of the family did the milking.\\ |
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| Brenda and Sterling benefited from family legacies as well as the local area being transformed by 'tree-changers' and the Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM, now Amcor). After they sold the farm, the local creek made into a dam, with the land apparently used as a hobby farm, the area looks idyllic and, to those who grew up there, unrecognisable. Brenda and Sterling enjoyed a comfortable retirement at 5 Hawea Close,[[wp>Wamberal,_New_South_Wales|Wamberal]] on the NSW Central Coast. Molly and John Wilson later moved to Wamberal in their retirement as well.\\ | Brenda and Sterling benefited from family legacies as well as the local area being transformed by 'tree-changers' and the Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM, now Amcor). After they sold the farm, the local creek made into a dam, with the land apparently used as a hobby farm, the area looks idyllic and, to those who grew up there, unrecognisable. Brenda and Sterling enjoyed a comfortable retirement at 5 Hawea Close,[[wp>Wamberal,_New_South_Wales|Wamberal]] on the NSW Central Coast. Molly and John Wilson later moved to Wamberal in their retirement as well.\\ |
| Sterling and Brenda M-P celebrating their 50th? wedding anniversary.((Provenance: J. Godden.)). {{:sterling_and_brenda_668_.jpg?300|}} | Sterling and Brenda M-P celebrating their 50th? wedding anniversary.((Provenance: J. Godden.)). {{:sterling_and_brenda_668_.jpg?250|}} |
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| 3. **Phyllis** Dorothea (1914---) was artistic, vivacious and, like so many of her era and her elder sister, retained the socially conservative views of her youth. She married grazier Alan Robert Cullen-Ward on 23 February 1935. He had a property 'Mani' at Cumnock, NSW as well as a house at [[wp>Drummoyne,_New_South_Wales|Drummoyne]] in Sydney. She had 2 sons and 3 daughters including [[wp>Susan_of_Albania|Susan]] who married (secondly) [[wp>Leka_I,_Crown_Prince_of_Albania|King Leka of the Albanians]].\\ | 3. **Phyllis** Dorothea (1914---) was artistic, vivacious and, like so many of her era and her elder sister, retained the socially conservative views of her youth. She married grazier Alan Robert Cullen-Ward on 23 February 1935. He had a property 'Mani' at Cumnock, NSW as well as a house at [[wp>Drummoyne,_New_South_Wales|Drummoyne]] in Sydney. She had 2 sons and 3 daughters including [[wp>Susan_of_Albania|Susan]] who married (secondly) [[wp>Leka_I,_Crown_Prince_of_Albania|King Leka of the Albanians]].\\ |