Mr John Frank James TOVELL

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Obituary: John Frank James Tovell Obituary, Abt 20 Feb 2006. John Frank James Tovell, Jack, the first born child of parents Gladys and Jim of Ipswich in England. His sister Rosemary, known as Jill and his brother Don still reside in England with their families. They would have liked to have been here with us today but distance prevailed. His nephew Paul, who now lives in Victoria, is here to represent the UK family.
The family lived in a large but typical London terrace house in Chiswick, a western suburb of London. The family and house surviving the German blitz bombings of World War II.
As a teenager Jack was a keen member of an active Sea Scout group and became interested in all things nautical. He maintained this passion for the rest of his life. Like his father Jim, Jack joined the Royal Navy in 1942- but did not see active service as he was medically discharged. Fortunate maybe!
In England, he worked as a progress Planner for Electrical Musical Industries (EMI) on the manufacture of the first magnetic tape recording machine.
In 1956, Sadie Henderson, who would later become Jack's wife, and her friend Miriam travelled to England on a working holiday. On the ship, they met John Greig, who was a friend of Sadie's brother Jim. Through John, Sadie and Jack met at the Down Under Club in London, a popular meeting place for Australian's and where Rolf Harris used to entertain.

Later that year Jack, John and another friend Stan left England to tour Europe for 3 months on their Villiars powered James 197 motorcycles. Staying in youth hostels and camping where they could. Following this they and their motorcycles sailed to Perth, in Western Australia and were amongst the first people to cross the Nullarbor on two wheels. At this time there were no sealed roads, and there were regular mishaps over the handle bars due to bulldust and hidden potholes! I remember Dad telling me that they had to stop and replace many broken wheel spokes on a nightly basis and every second night replaced the cork facings in their clutch discs due to the dust.
After crossing the Nullarbor Jack briefly worked in the offices of the Whyalla shipyards before heading onto Brisbane, the home town of John Greig. Stan and Jack then went on to tour and work in New Zealand, before Jack returned to England to continue his courtship of Sadie. A process aided by their attendance of many of London's many great theatrical, musical and comedic stage performances.
And in 1959 Jack then married Sadie in London and after a few years they decided Adelaide, South Australia would be good place to set up home.
Jack secured another job as a progress planer with EMI at WRE, the Weapons Research complex at Salisbury enjoying working on the many secret and classified military hardware projects until his retirement in the mid 1980's
He was a good father and friend to me and my younger sister, Sarah Jane. Our partners Amanda and Ben, and enjoyed being a grandfather to Annabel, Sarah and Ben's daughter.
In his retirement Jack loved to spend time at the family holiday home in Goolwa, and was very happy to spend his hours fishing, either from the banks of the River Murray or on it from his small seagull powered plywood boat that he made with Sadie's brother, Tony. Returning to his early marine passion
He also enjoyed listening to classical music and reading historical Navel style novels, primarily those written by author Douglas Reeman. He also liked playing billiards and indoor bowls with the ARPA (Australian Retired Persons Association) Somerton Group. Jack was also a very competent woodworker and had attended woodworking night classes when he and Sadie were first setting up home in Adelaide. Fabricating many beautiful articles of furniture still in use to this day.
The last few months had not been easy for Dad health-wise, and last Thursday afternoon, one day after his 82nd birthday, he passed peacefully from us at the Repatriation General Hospital in Daw Park.
Like myself, I hope all of you present share the good memories of my father, Jack Tovell, and I would like to take this moment to thank you all on behalf of mum, Sarah, Amanda, Ben and Annabel for your kind words of support and sharing this day with us.