Clarence Lindsay Reid
Clarrie enlisted at Seymour on September 14, 1942 and served in the Australian Army in Western Australia. While there he gained many licences and was in 101 Motor Regiment. At one stage he drove the “big wigs” around. He was training to be a paratrooper as he wanted to serve overseas but by that stage Darwin had been bombed. He was a Corporal when he was discharged October 7, 1944.
The reason for this was because H.V.McKay wanted his best workers returned as it was essential that more machinery had to be built to harvest the crops to send more food to the U.K. and Europe as the War had damaged much of the farmland as well as a shortage of farm workers.
Consequently, Clarrie was in Melbourne to celebrate the end of World War II where there was much merriment and dancing in the city streets. It was that day that he met Shirley Ward also celebrating.
They married on Remembrance Day, November 11, 1947, and remained in Melbourne. At one stage, he was a tram conductor, ran a carrying business at the port and for many years worked at Kodak, the camera and film company.
Later, aged 79, Clarrie had a stroke on Anzac Day, April 25, 1997, and passed away four days later.
Service No. VX101036
Clarrie, as he was known, was born May 17, 1918, at Birchip, the eldest surviving son of William and Eva (Eveline Rose Bolden) Reid, of Birchip West. He attended the Birchip West State School No. 3066 to Grade 8, except for the 1929 drought when he attended Scotchman’s Lead S.S. while his father drove their sheep in the Bunyinong area. On their return to the farm, he attended the Ballapur S.S. until the Birchip West School reopened in mid 1931.
After gaining his Merit Certificate he left school and worked on the farm with his father. He often camped several weeks at a time in a corrugated hut on another part of the farm in the Ballapur Parish.
He drove a team of horses to work those paddocks. Like many other young men in the area, he played football for the Ballapur Club until, due to the depression and drought years in the 1930s he moved to Melbourne and gained employment with H.V.McKay, at the Sunshine Harvester Co. He enlisted with the Citizens Military Forces on March 30, 1941.
