Jack Thewlis was a loving family man, a keen caravanner, a mad Carlton supporter and perhaps one of the most dedicated volunteers the Goulburn Valley has ever seen.
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Born in Warracknabeal on December 19, 1934, to Archie and Jean Thewlis, Jack was the youngest of five children, including Colin, Bess, Peter and Robert.
“He was going to be a Jill, but he ended up a Jack, that’s what he always said to us,” his wife of almost 67 years, Valerie, recalled.
A jokester his whole life, Jack loved to make people laugh.
It was just one of many ways the beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather enriched other people’s lives.
In his early days, he attended Warracknabeal Lah State School, followed by Warracknabeal High School.
After school, he worked in the spare parts department of Wilson Boltons and sold farm machinery for Ken Smales (Smale Farm Equipment) at Warracknabeal.
In August 1958, he and Valerie were married.
Together, they had two sons, Brian and Timothy.
Valerie said Jack was heavily involved in sport his whole life, whether it was barracking, playing or supporting his kids and grandkids in their endeavours.
“He just loved to be involved in sporting things because he loved sports himself,” she said.
He played cricket for Lah and coached and captained at the Warracknabeal Football Club, where he led his reserves team to a premiership in 1963.
Jack was a volunteer firefighter for Warracknabeal CFA for more than 20 years, and helped his brigade win several district demonstrations, including a Tasmanian State Demo in Queenstown in 1954 and a Victorian State Demo in Bendigo in 1957.
Though he left the Warracknabeal brigade when the family relocated to Shepparton in 1973, he returned every Easter for the following 40 years — a 650km round trip — to help his former brigade raise funds on Good Friday for the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Jack went on to volunteer with Shepparton CFA in his new home.
His first job in Shepparton was as a spare parts manager at Massey Ferguson, which he held for more than 15 years, before going to work as a shire ranger weighing cattle at the saleyards.
He immersed himself in sports and volunteer work as soon as he arrived in the Goulburn Valley.
Jack had served eight years’ national service with the Australian Army following the Korean War.
He joined the Shepparton RSL in 1976 and started volunteering straight away, with hospital visits and helping to organise dinner dances, balls, chook raffles and other fundraising pursuits before pokies machines were introduced in the early 1990s.
He never missed an opportunity to sell Anzac and Remembrance Day badges, poppies and merchandise, selling for up to 14 consecutive days at times.
He received life membership to the RSL in 2004 and the prestigious Meritorious Award in 2020, making him the first, and still only, local member to have been awarded the esteemed accolade.
To qualify for this award, one must hold life membership, have had 30 years of continuous membership and have given 25 years of outstanding service.
“That just shows the character and commitment to the RSL from Jack,” Shepparton RSL president Bob Wilkie said.
“In my opinion, he is the best member the Shepparton RSL has had, both in character and commitment to the Shepparton RSL sub-branch.”
Mr Wilkie said Jack had told him one of his only regrets was that he did not get to go on active service while he was serving.
Jack filled that void in many other ways.
He was also a Legacy member since 2000, holding several committee and board positions, as well as sergeant of arms roles in his time.
Legacy president Robert Mathieson said in 2019 that Jack was the “epitome of a Legatee”.
“Caring, devoting countless hours to not only his ‘widows’ (of which there were 40 he took care of), but to Shepparton Legacy Club,” Mr Mathieson wrote in a citation letter for Jack’s Meritorious Award nomination.
Valerie said one of Jack’s proudest moments was carrying the Legacy torch through Shepparton during its centenary in 2023.
“Even though he wasn’t very well at the time, when he got to carry that torch for Legacy, he was very honoured to do that,” she said.
Jack also regularly helped sell Legacy badges during the annual Legacy Week.
While he played bowls for leisure with Shepparton RSL for 42 years after joining as a foundation member in 1977, he also helped run the club, holding secretary, treasurer and life member roles throughout.
He was a member of the Shepparton Pipe Band and the Shepparton Brass Band.
In 2008, Jack and Valerie moved into Kialla Gardens retirement village.
“He held the president’s club in the social committee for about five or six years,” Valerie said.
“He was always ready to help out anybody, any neighbours that got into trouble, he’d try and solve it for them.”
Jack is credited with instigating the first barbecue built at the facility for the village residents.
He and Valerie would organise and cook meals once a fortnight that were enjoyed by 70 to 80 residents.
Jack also organised the village’s annual Christmas dinner and the New Year’s Eve party, ran Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup sweeps, and a footy tipping competition.
When Banksia Lodge Aged Care Facility opened at Kialla Gardens in 2008, he began volunteering there, too.
“He loved telling jokes to the residents, putting a smile on their faces; he would do anything for them,” Legacy war widows club treasurer and dear friend of Jack’s, Leonie Wilson, said.
“His integrity, enthusiasm and dedication to the many varied interests throughout his life are inspirational.
“This community is indeed indebted to Jack Thewlis.”
Up until Jack fell ill with cancer after having a stent implanted three years ago, Valerie said he’d lived a healthy life.
“He had a good quality of life for 86 years, never hardly had a pain,” she said.
“You know, if he had a night out, he never got the headache; I seemed to get the headache from everybody else, Jack never got a hangover.”
The couple took many trips during their almost 67 years of marriage, with deserted landscapes finding a special place in Jack’s heart.
“We had a good life together. We really enjoyed our caravanning around Australia and meeting people on the road,” Valerie said.
“We did right around Australia, but he mainly loved going into the outback, up around Lightning Ridge, all that area rather than the coast.
“He liked getting around the old things that he used to collect, that’s why he liked getting out in the country.”
Jack passed away on August 1. His funeral was held on August 12 at Merritt Funeral Services in Mooroopna, with upwards of 130 people from all walks of life in attendance.
His ashes will be taken to his birthplace, Warracknabeal, next year.
Jack is survived by his wife, Valerie, sons, Brian and Timothy, grandchildren Joel, Natalie and Jayde, and great-grandchild Anikah.