In a year of 60th anniversaries, Bayview couple Bill and Gwen West celebrate their Diamond Wedding Anniversary on 2 November with a family luncheon at Palm Beach Golf Club on Saturday 5 November which has been expanded, unknown to them, to include friends from all parts of their lives over that 60 years.
Theirs was a wartime romance between a Sydney girl and an RN airman. Gwenneth Jamieson answered a request posted on a notice board at work to young Sydney women to go to the British Service Club to help welcome young English service men. On that first night she met William West, a TAG (Telegraphist Air Gunner) in the RN Fleet Air Arm, a member of the 820 Squadron on HMS Indefatigible, who had been trained in Canada.
He was in Sydney recuperating from an injury. After that first meeting in the early part of 1945, they met every night as he had a leave pass for every second night and what must have been a very good copy of a leave pass for every other night! They were married before he returned to England on his ship, and Gwen became a war bride on the HMS Victorious.
Their story is partly told in song and stage by a Canadian group 440 Productions, which researched the stories of some of the airmen who trained at their local camp in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Canada.
The luncheon is hosted by their three daughters Marilynne, Annette and Judi and will be attended by 4 generations of family, friends from Chester Hill, the Northern Beaches and Canberra. Both the bridesmaid and flower girl, Gwen’s sisters Betty and Marie, will be there and many cards and good wishes have come from friends, relatives and TAGS from other parts of Australia and overseas. A message has been sent by the bride’s aunt, Flora Jamieson, who will be 100 this year and so 5 generations of the family are involved.
Messages have also been received from the Queen, the Governor General, the Prime Minister, the Governor of NSW, the Premier of NSW and Local Member, Bronwyn Bishop.
440 Productions have sent their greetings with an excerpt from their last show presented in England, with part of the Bill and Gwen story – the proposal and the Anniversary Waltz.
The celebration is being recorded through a website, which has messages and will have photos of the ay to share with those who weren’t able to make it on the day which also tells their stories.