Well-known former Shoalhaven man John Christmas will be farewelled at a special public memorial service in Nowra on Thursday, September 27.
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Mr Christmas passed away on Thursday, August 16 in the Walkerville Aged Care Centre at Adelaide, aged 90.
The memorial service will be held at All Saints Anglican Church, Nowra starting at 10am.
James Rackham, in a eulogy presented at Mr Christmas’ funeral, described him as the finest man he have ever known.
John Franklin Christmas was born to George Victor Christmas and Ann Franklin in Ashfield Sydney on October 27, 1927 – he had a happy childhood and even though they moved three times before he was 15, it was during this early period that some interests that became lifelong loves were forged: poultry, cocker spaniel dogs, boats and fishing to name just a few.
March 19, 1932 was a huge day for NSW. John walked across the newly opened Sydney Harbour Bridge that day, held by his father. He never forgot it. Sydney and its harbour were always been one of John’s loves.
In 1943-44 he gained selection to Fort Street Selective Boys High School - where he completed the Leaving certificate with good results in all subjects except French where he got an L.
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Unfortunately this rendered him unable to gain admission to Sydney University in 1945.
So instead he became apprenticed to a small engineering shop, following his father’s footsteps, where he found himself doing all the dirty jobs, and on the cheap.
He also enrolled that year into a seven year Diploma of Engineering Course with night time lectures. But he became so tired he couldn’t stay awake.
John had an uncle, Hylton Christmas who was a dentist in Wollongong, and in 1946, at his suggestion, he changed direction and reapplied for entry to the Sydney University Dental Faculty, and this time was successful.
He graduated in February 1950 having passed each exam, and excelling in anatomy.
He had received financial assistance from Ben Chifley’s Labor Government, but this was predicated on passing every exam, so it had been a stressful time. But John could never have made it without Ben Chifley.
He had been promised work with his uncle but when it came to it he did not want him – so he went to Nowra further down the coast and worked for two years, for 12 pounds per week with Mr John Sullivan in 1950-51.
John always said he only learnt how to do the work once he started with Mr Sullivan.
After two years he felt a wish to start his own practice – John Sullivan was very upset when he learned he was going into competition, and forced John to pay a 500 pound penalty fee – for breaching an employment condition where he was bound out of working in the same district for two years.
It took John a full 10 months wages to pay the fee.
If ever a man built a career from absolutely a standing start, John would have to qualify – he began in rented rooms with equipment financed from a loan guaranteed by his mother – with a book that had no patients in it - and to top it off a very strong competitor in John Sullivan.
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He told me once that if he had had a wife he would have gone broke absolutely guaranteed. It was only that he could live at home that saved him.
His first few patients were friends who took pity on him, and came in to have their teeth checked. But slowly, slowly it grew and grew and ended up a practice with over 6000 patients.
By 1958 the practice was going well, and still single - he decided to take eight months off and travel.
This may have been the greatest year of his life. He sailed to England, met his great friend Tony Tym along the way, and spent five months travelling through Europe, England, Ireland, the US and three months working in London.
He made enough managing a practice in three months to fully cover the trip – so instead of returning broke like most young people at that time – came back with more than he had left with.
John always talked about 1958 - it opened his eyes to the world and developed him in a way that only travel can.
John, and Lynnette Lamond, a registered nurse from Nowra, were married on September 30, 1960 in St Clements Church Mossman.
They met while John was in hospital for a couple of weeks in 1959 suffering pneumonia.
John had married a very special woman, and between them they began an outstanding partnership.
They built their home at 64 Illaroo Road, North Nowra. Anna was born on July 21, 1961 with David following soon after on December 16, 1962.
From this time John’s life through to the early 70s expanded to become a fascinating tapestry of interests and loves.
They were many and diverse, such as - Apex, vegetable growing, clocks, Greenwich Mean Time, international exchange students, woodwork, photography, sailing, fishing, poll Hereford cattle breeding at Falls Creek farm, his father’s Hearn family heritage on Parramatta Road, Sir Earl Christmas Page, a brilliant surgeon and founder of the Country Party, amateur theatre, gardening, second hand car yards especially those with English cars, bible studies and picnics with Mrs Lamond and Hope, and just generally caring for everything.
All the while he loved his work and his patients so much, he regularly worked five and a half days a week, and then fitted all that in.
He enjoyed polishing cars so much he went right through the paint to the bare metal on the Morris Minor.
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He enjoyed painting and painted a cottage at the farm inside and out, including the roof, for Anna and myself before we were married using his great and loyal friend Peter Hanson’s paint.
In 1970 he founded Bomaderry Rotary Club as charter President.
Bomaderry still goes well and John Merritt came from Nowra to represent the Club.
In 1975 John was selected by a group of Sydney based Rotarians to lead a six week Group Study Exchange to Bombay, India.
He was responsible for five other successful applicants all between the ages of 25 and 35.
On May 11, 1978 David was accidentally killed during a school trip in New Caledonia. This tragedy had a profound effect on John, Lynnette and Anna.
It took John a long time to regain some sort of equilibrium and when he did, he put more energy than ever into voluntary work.
They built a tennis court for, and donated two stained glass windows to, All Saints Anglican Church Nowra in his memory.
He also became a founding member of the All Saints Church committee for Chesalon Homes for the Aged.
One of his teachers said of David that in all his career he had never met a finer student.
All the while John and Lynnette forgave, and continued giving great support to their community.
He retired from full time work in 1988 and began a long period of voluntary and part-time work which extended through until 2002.
In March 1988 John sold his practice and then a few weeks later on April 21 lost his right index finger accidentally touching the fan belt on his Volvo car.
He had just cancelled his fingers and thumbs insurance policy only the week before, after maintaining it since 1952.
They were due to go to Broken Hill for a month to manage the Mines Dental Clinic and when John rang to say he had lost a finger, and was not sure if he could ever work again, the practice manager (a man) was so desperate for him said, “I don’t care if you haven’t got any B fingers at all - just get out here!!”.
John and Lynnette did go and spent three months there, and went back twice after that including quite a lot of work done with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
In the period 1989-1994 they travelled to the Phillipines, Jamaica and Guatemala where he worked as a volunteer dentist through the Rotary Foundation and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
They were away approximately a month at a time, with Lynnette working as John’s dental nurse. They worked on Vietnamese refugees in the Phillipines in clinics with dirt floors.
Sometimes they worked outside in Guatemala, where dental decay was so rampart and serious that patients would queue all night to see them.
In 1994 he was presented a Rotary Award for Outstanding International Service and in 1997 Rotary’s highest award for Service Above Self, of which only 150 are awarded annually world-wide.
During this time he worked with a group of others through Rotary, raising over $80,000 in a short period to begin a chemotherapy room in the Shoalhaven Hospital.
This was a great help to cancer patients in the Nowra-Bomaderry area. It meant they no longer had to go to Wollongong for treatment.
In 2000 this work, and his other community service was recognised with an Order of Australia Medal for service to the community, particularly through Rotary International.
John and Lynnette so loved their family in South Australia that they made at least 60 3000km round trips there between 1984 and 2006. Then they and Anna’s aunt Hope Lamond sold up in Nowra and moved to SA.
They purchased a home in Walkerville Adelaide and soon after John began volunteering in the Allity Nursing Home across the road.
He ran a men’s group for six years before his eyesight deteriorated too much.
He had been diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1996 and lost a kidney in 2002. He tried so hard to fight that cancer, he underwent approximately 70 general anesthetics between 1996 and June 2018.
He was intelligent, innovative, careful and never wasteful. Lynnette never needed new kitchen pots. He mended broken handles with dental acrylic.
He was determined not to spend money on hearing aids, until it got that bad, Lynnette said he had to get them them even if they cost $100,000.
He even repaired a cavity in his own mouth once using mirrors and instinct.
He serviced his own cars until he bought the Volvo in 1983.
On September 28, 2016 when South Australia experienced its infamous power blackout, Lynnette had just started cooking the sausages for tea.
Not problem to John. He went out to the garage, found the little spirit cooker he had last used in 1958 in Europe, filled it with methylated spirits and off it went and finished the sausages, after 58 years of storage.
He always took his time overspending and throwing things out, and never made rash decisions.
At the heart of it, John epitomised what it is to be a consummate Christian and Rotarian.
He believed in God and trusted him and read his word.
And he lived by Rotary’s 4-Way test:
1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
He always said he could never have achieved all he did without Lynnette.
But despite all John’s gifts and skills, one thing he couldn’t really do was cook. He was okay at barbecues and could set the table, and loved food, but he couldn’t cook!
So he really did depend on Lynnette, without whom he would never have been the man he was.
- A memorial service for John Christmas will be held at All Saints Anglican Church, Nowra on Thursday, September 27. starting at 10am.