Historical information

Don Brown was born in 1924. He commenced work as a messenger at the Surrey Hills post office on 12 July 1938. The photo was taken in early 1939 in the yard beside the post office. He became the postal assistant in 1940. This work involved some counter duties, but mainly despatching the mail. In January 1940 he enlisted in the RAAF.
In November 1987, Don visited Surrey Hills on a trip 'down memory lane' from his then home in Canberra. He sent this photo to the historical collection following this trip and recorded the following memories of staff at the Surrey hills post office during the period 1938-1941.
The post master was HS (Stan) Shaw; the postal clerk was AH (Bert) Mitchell; the postal assistant was Alec Walsh, then Terry Gawne, the Don Brown.
There were 9 postmen at any one time. Postmen Don remembered were Len Collins, Bert Binns, Frank Johnson, Ern Harding, Len Warmbrunn, Merv Daley, Chris Larsen, Charlie Woodford, Pat Ginnane, Bill Carlson, Jim Payne and Bill Devlin.
There were 2 telegraph messengers at any one time; apart from Don himself there were George Smith, Ron Paez and Bob Nelson.
Terry Gawne and George Smith also joined the RAAF. Terry was shot down and killed in the Pacific in 1943.
Ern Harding, Bill Carson and Bill Devlin joined the army.
At the time of his employment George Smith, Bill Devlin, Jim Payne and Don himself were under 40; the others were in their forties or older.
Don remained in contact with George Smith, who in 1987 was living in Box Hill.

Physical description

Black and white photo of a young man wearing a uniform astride a bicycle. In the background is a corrugated iron fence.