Page 8 - W.E. West Robert Smith Flip Book Interior

Preface
WILLIE EDWIN WEST WAS my grandfather. As his only daughter, Winifred Joyce Smith (nee West), was my mother. In my early years, on long weekends and often in the school holidays, we travelled from Sydney to Orange regularly to stay at his property, Caernarvon, on Canobolas Road. My parents had met through Bruce West when my father, Charles James Smith, served in the 2/9th Field Regiment. Prior to embarkation for the Middle East, Bruce introduced Charlie to his two brothers, Russell and Brian, who had enlisted in the 2/15th Field Regiment which was subsequently sent to Malaya. Brian was killed in Singapore, and Russell died in a Military Hospital in a POW Camp in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Coincidentally, my father’s brother-in-law James McKeown also served in the 2/15th Field Regiment, worked on the Burma-Thailand Railway, and was eventually transported to Japan where he worked in a mine until the end of the war. Dad and Bruce became life-long friends.
Together with my brothers Don and Reg, I thoroughly enjoyed the farm/ orchard life at Caernarvon with Uncle Howard, Auntie Rita and their four chil- dren. Of course, we also visited Uncle Bruce and Auntie Athalie at St Albans; and our agricultural experience was rounded out with visits to Uncle Jim, Auntie Joyce and their son Kenneth in Gunnedah and then Narrabri.
Grandfather was a regular visitor to our home in Peakhurst, especially in his later years when he came to Sydney to avoid the Orange winters. He used the opportunity to visit his sisters as well as friends at the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Association NSW in Sydney.
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