STEWART John (Jack) Robertson

John ‘Jack’ Robertson Stewart and Winifred Jeannie née Hall

John known as Jack Stewart who was born in Leith, Scotland in 1886, son of Thomas Duncan Stewart and Christina nee Robertson.
Jack had completed studies as a Mechanical Engineer in Leith and took up a position on a ship trading in the North Sea. When his brothers Tom 2409 and Sam 3923 settled in Gnowangerup in 1911, they wrote home and asked their parents to bring their sisters Maggie and Ella and join them.
Christina and Thomas were worried about the trip because of their age, and as Jack was on leave at the time he offered to accompany them and stay with them for the minimum two years available for resettlement.
They arrived aboard the Orsova from London on 30th October 1911. Jack had planned to return to Scotland however he saw the opportunities to take up land. He initially worked with his brothers on their farm. When WWI broke out the three brothers joined the AIF, all serving at the Western Front.

JOHN (Jack) ROBERTSON STEWART                  #1

      JACK & WINNIE STEWART           #2
 

Jack was aged 30, a ‘single farmer’ when he enlisted in 1916. He embarked for the Western Front a little more than five years since he arrived in Western Australia.
Jack returned to Australia on 1st June 1919.
Jack's brother Sam met Dorothy Hall when he was recuperating from being gassed, and they were married. After the war Sam and Dorothy returned to Australia, as did Tommy and Jack. Jack was entitled to a war service allotment, which he took up.
Dorothy was lonely so Sam wrote and asked her sister Winifred, known as "Winnie", to come to Australia to keep her company. Sam and Dorothy met her when she disembarked at Albany, and Jack was the first person Winnie met in Gnowangerup.
Winnie and Jack were married in June 1927 and she joined him on the farm.
A son Ian was born in 1928 and a daughter Elspeth in 1931.
Ian attended the Gnowangerup State School.
These were the worst years for farmers - the Depression still had a grip on the economy and like so many others who were hard working and capable but couldn't match the enormity of the prevailing conditions, and by 1935 Jack and Winnie were forced to walk off the farm.
They left almost everything behind and moved into a house in Denny Street with his parents to care for them in their old age.
Work was hard to come by but Jack secured a job with the Gnowangerup Roads Board. He had his own truck, and gained extra wages by taking men on subsistence out to Jerramungup and Ongerup building roads.
He was away for several weeks at a time.

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