Anglesea veteran celebrates centenary

WHEN Jack Tucker enlisted to fight for his county during World War II, the last thing on his mind was growing old, let alone becoming a centenarian.

Jump forward eight decades to earlier this month, and Tucker gathered with his family in Melbourne to commemorate his 100th birthday.

A few days after the November 2 celebrations, Tucker returned to Cordelia Aged Care in Anglesea to enjoy a well-deserved rest.

When Navy personnel from HMAS Cerberus visited, he spoke warmly about his time in service.

“I don’t think I look any different to when I turned 99,” he said.

“They made me go home and fetch my birth certificate when I enlisted, and I still think I look younger than I am.”

Tucker joined the Royal Australian Navy in September 1944, after several attempts to secure a release from his position as a junior clerk for the Victorian Railways.

He enlisted as a coder and was trained at Flinders Naval Depot (now HMAS Cerberus) in Victoria, completing both recruit and specialist training, before preparing for service in the Pacific theatre.

“It was obvious to anyone who read a newspaper or listened to the radio, that the Japanese were making inroads and moving south day by day,” he said.

“Darwin had been bombed, as well as Townsville, Wyndham and Derby, and there had been midget submarines in Sydney Harbour.

“This prompted me and many others to take the step and enlist.”

As a coder, it was Tucker’s job to transmit and receive coded messages between establishments and ships, using the TypeX cypher machine.

“The TypeX machine looked a bit like a typewriter,” Jack said.

“We would set the machine to ‘cypher’ and type a message in plain text.

“The machine would then encipher that message, which was sent to the receiver, who would complete the process with the machine set to decipher.”

 

In a twist of fate, Tucker suffered an accident that left him with a broken wrist and unable to write.

He was due to post to HMAS Ballarat and sail on operations, but remained at Flinders Naval Depot during his recovery, and subsequently worked in the transmitting station.

“We still operated on a 24-hour one-in-three watch system,” Jack said.

“We’d have 24 hours off and then go again.

“My mates and I were involved in transmitting, receiving and relaying coded messages all over Australia and to ships like HMAS Australia.”

Tucker said he was glad to have served in the Navy.

“Though I am sorry not to have served at sea, the work we did at the transmitting station was important.

“I also met some of the best people I’ll ever meet, and who I stayed in touch with for many years until they passed.”

To mark Tucker’s 100 birthday, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles recorded a personal video message that was played during his celebrations.

“I really appreciated the video message from the Deputy Prime Minister,” Tucker said.

“It was particularly special that Mr Marles took the time to record a personal message to me.”

He remains a proud veteran and regularly attends memorials, his local Anzac Day march and remembrance events as often as possible.