Remembering ‘a bonzer of a man’

“He was a bonzer man,” Christina Kane remarked with a sad twinkle in her eyes. She was referring to her fair-haired, blue-eyed husband, Ronald Owen Bryant. They had married in May of 1941 after a four-month engagement.

Shortly afterwards, Ronald, a trained airforce pilot, departed for duty in England. Cruelly, within six months, the couple's dreams were shattered. Ronald was declared missing in action in November 1941 when his plane did not return from a bombing raid to Berlin. 

You may remember this couple from a story earlier this year in the Illawarra Flame. Since then Local Studies staff have made contact with descendants of the couple who were able to provide more details of their story.

Christina had received the telegram declaring Ronald missing while on duty as a nurse at Wollongong Hospital, and true to her stoic nature she just kept on working. “What else was I going to do?” she later said.

In time, a blue suitcase with Ron’s name inscribed on it was sent back to her from Europe. It contained all of his wartime possessions.

His body was never recovered from the sands around Suderoog, Germany where the wreckage of his plane was located. 

One can only guess how long it was before Christina gave up all hope that a miracle might occur and Ronald be found alive and well. Another woman, Ronald’s mother Sarah and his seven siblings from the Central Coast, must have been saying the same prayer. 

Ronald’s loss was a further blow to Sarah, who was mourning the death of her 68-year-old husband Samuel. He had been injured in a motorcycle accident in November 1939, and a month later he was dead. However a sense of duty must have compelled Ronald to enlist, which he did at Lindfield in Sydney, in October, 1940. Luckily for Sarah, Ronald was the only one of her five sons able to enlist. 

Ronald’s sacrifice was never forgotten by his family, with his sister Marj Camp (nee Bryant) naming one of her children after him. While Christina went on to marry Charles Kane and raise a family of seven children, she still kept in touch with Ronald’s sister, Neva Twigg from Cowra. Indeed, Neva’s son Lance remembers visiting Christina in Sydney. Like others interested in documenting his family’s history, he is still searching for clues as to the fate of Ronald and the crew of Whitley bomber Z6796.

This article is based around the memories of the Bryant and Kane families. If you want to uncover stories from your family’s history, staff at the Wollongong City Libraries Local Studies section are here to help. Email enquiries to localhistory@wollongong.nsw.gov.au

Remembrance Day Ceremonies

RSL Sub-branches across the Illawarra will pay homage to the fallen on Remembrance Day, traditionally held at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to mark the end of World War I.