Roy Edward EWER is my grandmother's cousin. He grew up in Bexley, NSW (a suburb of Sydney) and as a boy his family took yearly vacations to Patonga. The family spent so much time there that Roy's sister Joyce married a young man from Patonga and she moved there. And so the family ties to Patonga were strengthened. During World War 2, like many men, Roy served in the Australian military.
I was recently contacted by Trudy Goodman, who was digging in her garden at Patonga and found an identification tag, with 'R.E. Ewer' on it. Searching for Ewer and Patonga brought her to my blog, and thence in contact with Roy's family. It's remarkable that over sixty years after the conclusion of World War 2, with some cleaning it has survived remarkably well:
N239837
EWER R.E.
C OF E
A2
Thanks to Trudy, the tag is out of the garden and in the hands of Roy's family.
It turns out that Trudy now lives in the very house that Roy's sister Joyce raised her family in after World War 2. Somehow, an identity tag bearing Roy's name made it's way to the garden in a place where Roy spent so much time, and it waited there, looking down over Patonga, waiting to re-join him in 2012.
Roy's niece Lynette Jones, who grew up in Patonga, provided me with a number of photos. I've chosen to post one showing the view down to the water at Patonga in 1922. It's probably a small world, but the internet has certainly made it smaller!
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