Ron Powell discusses his family’s history of service in both World Wars. Ron’s cousin Percy Kennedy Jr served during World War 1 in Egypt and France with the 23rd Battalion, and died of Tuberculosis in England in 1916. Ron’s great uncle Sydney Archibald Wilson served with the light horse in Egypt in World War 1, and again with the ordinance corps in New Guinea in World War 2. Ron also talks about his father, a trained pilot, who tried to join the air force to fly in World War 2 but was not accepted. Ron does not know why the air force knocked him back, but given his father’s pilot skills and training, Ron suspects race may have been the barrier to his enlistment.

• Listen to Ron’s interview in Newcastle;
• Return to the Newcastle Yarn Up page.