Vale- 2022, June
- Jun 30, 2022
- 4 min read
ROACH, Henry Joseph (Harry) (22 January 2022)
Late of Cooroy, Queensland. Advised by his widow Betty.
Harry was a well known kiap and served in a number of Districts in various capacities.
WHITTAKER, June Lovina (8 February 2022)
A fascinating article about this remarkable woman, a former lecturer at ASOPA/ITI, written by Gaynor Kaad, will appear in the September 2022 issue of PNG Kundu which can be found here
SCRAGG, Elsie Joy (30 January 2022, aged 95)
Elsie Joy Hann, known always as Joy, was born in Campbelltown, SA on 29 September 1926. Her family were horse-traders and she grew up riding and showing horses. After completing her secondary education she chose to start training as a nurse at the Bordertown District Hospital. One of her memories of that time was the shock and horror she felt upon seeing the poor condition of two of her uncles who had been POWs for three years and were returning home on the Overland which, in those days, stopped at Serviceton.
In early 1947, Joy completing her nurse training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) met Dr Roy Scragg who was about to go to PNG. They became engaged in April 1948 and were married in September 1949 by Roy’s father at the Methodist church in Campbelltown. They resumed their duties after a four-day honeymoon: Joy at the Queen Victoria Hospital training in obstetrics and Roy as a registrar at the RAH. She never ever worked as a registered nurse.
In late 1950 Joy and their first child overnighted at Cooktown then flew to Port Moresby on a DC-3; then by cargo plane to Rabaul and finally to Kavieng. In those days Kavieng was a small settlement which had been almost destroyed during World War II. There were only about two dozen Europeans, some 60 Chinese and it included two villages. At that time the New Ireland people were dying out but now urban Kavieng has em-braced other villages and has over 10,000 residents. Joy’s second baby was born there, delivered by Roy.
She moved with her family to Pt Moresby in 1954 and developed her life-long interest in gardening and won many prizes at the Port Moresby Flower Show. She had an encyclopaedic knowledge of flowers and plants, including their scientific Latin names.
By 1957, after Roy was appointed the Director of the Public Health Department, Joy developed the knowledge and skills for organising large dinner parties and social events for visiting international dignitaries.
They would eventually have five children. The eldest, Robert, followed in his father’s footsteps and is an academic epidemiologist in New Zealand. Peter is a lawyer in Adelaide where Alison practices as a clinical counsellor. Ian worked as a fisherman off the Queensland Coast and on the family farm. Sadly, her third child (Niels) died shortly after birth and is buried at Badihagwa.
With her older children in boarding school in Australia, Joy became deeply involved in community work. In 1962, she was a foundation member and from 1965 to 1969 second president of the YWCA of PNG. She was instrumental in raising money for and organising the building of the YWCA’s hostel and youth centre. The hostel, opened in 1966, provided safe accommodation and educational programs for the young women of Port Moresby and other districts seeking work or employed in the city.
In her president’s address in 1966, Joy quoted an old Chinese proverb: ‘Remember that all the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today,’ and added: ‘We are being offered the privilege of sharing in the planting of these seeds that can have an untold influence on the girls and women of this land.’
In 1967 she organised the first Pt Moresby Art show at the YWCA and in 1969 arranged a grant of land for the extension of the YWCA to Lae.
In 1970, with the increasing indigenisation of the Public Service, Joy initiated a ‘Hostess Training Course’ at the YWCA Hostel for the wives of the men who were expected to take senior roles after Independence. Most of these women had minimal experience of life outside their own villages and this course prepared them for their future socio-economic environment.
The program was comprehensive, including personality and poise, cookery, health and nutrition, family planning, sewing and dressmaking, budgeting and banking, current affairs, and political education. About a dozen women attended weekly including Maria Somare, Caladia Matane, wife of the second Governer General, and Nerrie Tololo, wife of the first High Commissioner to Australia. In 1981 Nerrie Tololo wrote: Joy, I would like to say sincere thanks to you, Mrs Gunther and Mrs Rowley and all those wonderful women who did a lot to help some of us.
After moving back to Australia in 1974, Joy undertook the demanding task of decorating, furnishing then managing the families’ two Adelaide private hospitals. She also organised social functions on their farm linked to their South Devon cattle stud.
When, in 1991, they moved to their country property at Victor Harbor, Joy put the same energy into establishing a thriving cut flower business with a commercial plantation of six hectares of leucadendrons, Geraldton wax and proteas. She surrounded their house with a rose garden and became a member of the Victor Harbor Town Pride Committee.
In 2006 they moved to Glenelg where they lived independently until Joy’s passing.
Roy and Joy’s marriage was always a mutually supportive partnership and they celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary in 2021. She is survived by four of her children, seventeen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
Roy Scragg OBE AM
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