Geoffrey Brian Warner (1921 – 1977)

Geoffrey Brian Warner was the only son of Arthur Aubrey Warner and Majorie Lothian Colley who married in 1919. Geoffrey was born on 7 September 1921. He grew up in Mosman at a house called ‘Bronte’ at 10 Musgrave Street, a harbour side suburb of Sydney. Musgrave Street leads down to todays ferry wharf and it was here that the Colleys owned a boat shed business. It was only natural that young Geoffrey should spend his childhood among boats and on the water. His playground was the magnificent sparkling blue waters of Sydney Harbour.

He grew up in a time of peace, with World War I having come to an end 3 years before he was born but the aftermath of returning men with broken bodies and shattered dreams was everywhere to be seen. Sadly his mother died in 1937, when he was 15 years old but he was part of a large extended family and never alone. His father had six siblings alive at the time and by a strange coincidence, his cousin Peter Garde, who was a year younger, had lost his mother 9 years before when he was only 4 years of age. Yet another cousin Jim Browne, a cousin once removed, was to lose his mother in 1932 when he was 10. His mother was Annie Aubrey another of his father’s cousins. She had married Gregory Browne and they lived at Balmain.

While the three boys had in common that they had all lost their mothers while they were young they are not likely to have spent a lot of time together. Geoffrey’s four Warner maiden aunts were now living at Vaucluse after having moved out of the family home in Glen Street, Milsons Point when their own mother, Annie, died in 1926. It was at Vaucluse that “Netta and Dot raised little Peter when his father was unable to do so. In 1930 ‘Netta was 44, Dot was 36, Kathleen 25 and Jessie was 23. His only Warner Uncle was Willie who was 20 and a ship’s engineer. He was a fairly good ‘knock-about’ kind of a bloke but he was away at sea a fair bit.

Of course there were a lot more of his father’s cousins and their families in Sydney. Great Aunt Jessie Aubrey aged 63 lived not far away in Northbridge with her son Uncle Bobby Aubrey aged 26. Her son Uncle Will Aubrey (39) who had been wounded in the First War lived in Stockton. He had a son called Ken and a daughter called June. There was also Aunt Annie Browne (nee Aubrey) (38) Jim’s mother. Uncle Tom Aubrey (36) who was a ship’s captain, had a daughter called Margaret (7) and a son called John (5) and they were just about to move to Brisbane. As well as these there were the Menzies; Uncle William and Aunt Bessie and their two sons John (13) and George (15) who were living on Goat Island in the Harbour and Auntie Alice Menzies’s two daughters Dorothy and Jeanette in Stockton. At North Sydney there was Uncle Dick and Auntie Zilla’s with their sons Tom (16) and Don (9) and their daughter Jeanette (14). Out at Watsons Bay there was Uncle Tom and Auntie Netta Carson with their boys George (22), Jim (19) and Barron (13) and Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert and their children Peggy (20), Albert (17) and Bill (14). All these people took a lot of keeping up with!

By the time he was 12 years old and in high school, (1933 - see attached photo with his mother Marjorie), Geoffrey began to hear the family talking about a man called Hitler who had become the leader of Germany, the old enemy. Some said he was a good man with modern ideas but others were not so sure. They said “look at the trouble he’s causing”. The worst fears of the family were realized when on 3 September 1939, war was declared with Germany. It was hard to believe that things had come to this again after just 21 years of peace, barely a generation since the last war had ended. The worst of it was that so many of the young men of the family were of eligible age to serve. His Uncle Willie Warner, although 36 years old, was one of the first when he enlisted on 15 April 1940. His cousin Albert Brew who was a ships’ engineer like Uncle Willie was next on 15 June.

Geoffrey decided that he would join up too but his father, Arthur, would not sign the necessary permission until he was 19 years old. As soon as his birthday passed he went down and filled out the application forms and was called up on 1 October 1941. The Navy doctor gave him a clean bill of health, noting that he was 5’ 7 ½ “ tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and medium complexion noting that he had a scar to a toe on his left foot.

This is an extract from the forthcoming book, "The Menzies of Maitland St" by John Brew.