Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, I had the great pleasure of presenting Fred Denny from Thirlmere with a certificate to mark his upcoming 100th birthday. Fred's achieved so many remarkable things in the course of his hundred years. Firstly, I congratulate him on receiving the Order of Australia medal last year for his service in the Second World War with the 55th/53rd Battalion, the Mice of Moresby. A lance corporal, Fred served in the Army from 1940 to 1945 and was a frontline gunner on the battlefields. Fred, a butcher by trade, enlisted in the Army at the age of 18 against the advice of his best mate Brandon Chiddy, who later became a POW in Borneo.

Today, Fred continues to serve and volunteer with the Picton-Thirlmere-Bargo RSL sub-branch. He was a regular attendee at the Thirlmere Anzac Day service and often travels to the city to join his battalion mates to commemorate. Fred left school at the age of 10 to deliver meat for a butcher shop with his father. Aged 11 and 12, he used to drive cattle the family bought in Camden to Wollondilly Shire to stock the butcher shop. Fred and his wife, Myrtle, who, sadly, died in 1993, have two children, five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. After the war, he worked with Sydney Water for 40 years and was one of the engineers who oversaw the construction of the Warragamba Dam. Fred, your service to our community and our nation is truly extraordinary. I hope you enjoy your birthday celebrations with family and friends on 9 April.