George
Frederick Dengate
KEY
DATES:
Birth: 21 May 1909,
Hastings, East Sussex
Married: 18 January
1933, St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Divorced: 4 July 1949
Second Marriage:
Died: 16 March 1994,
Canberra, Australia
Cremated: Norwood Park
Crematorium, Canberra
BIOGRAPHY:
Written
by Jan Westcott, December 2006
George
Frederick
Dengate was born in
Hastings, Sussex
on 21 May 1909, the second son of Albert Edward and Edith Eliza
Ward.
The
family came to
Australia
on 2 January 1913 aboard the Orsova and settled in
Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. George was only 3 years and 9
months of age when his mother Edith died in Wagga in 1913.
Back Row: Isabella
Dawson Jemmett Bateman ( Mrs Blandford Thomas Lucas Bateman) holding Laura
(born 4 October 1916) , Mrs Bert Dengate holding Horrie (born 8
April 1915) Mary Bateman (nee Lucas)
Front Row: Albert
William Dengate (born 19 October 1907 Died WW II 1942 buried at
Singapore ) , Corrie Dengate ( born 28 August 1911 Mrs Ellingsworth), George
Dengate (born 21 May 1909 ) Dorothy Amy Chorine Bateman (born 12
April 1908 Mrs Harold Bunt), Henry Bateman. It was taken at the back
of Mary Street, North Wagga where Henry and Mary Bateman lived and it
was taken during WW I, c.1917.
George
used to ride a motor bike and on Sundays he rode in rallies and the family would
go to watch. George also had a
lovely voice and Jean remembers him singing when they had evenings around the
pianola in the big front room of their house in
North Wagga
when families visited.
Albert
Edward Dengate (left) and George Frederick Dengate
George
married
Doris Irene Pace
in
Wagga on 18
January 1933 at St Andrews Presbyterian Church. They had a son
Gary Ward Dengate.
George was a painter by trade.
The marriage was
dissolved on 4 July 1949. George
subsequently married Lillian. They
had no children.
George
enlisted in the Australian Army in
Canberra
and served in the Second World War. His
Service Number was N393948.
In
1939, the family moved to
Canberra
in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) after first living in Queanbeyan,
New South Wales. Albert (senior), Albert (junior)
and George all went to Queanbeyan and found somewhere to live, then the whole
family moved while the men got jobs with the Department of
Works in Canberra. Working in
Canberra
meant they were eligible to put their names on the list for housing.
George
and Doris were allocated a house in the
Canberra
suburb of Griffith. After his subsequent divorce and
remarriage to Lillian, George continued to live in the house in
Griffith. Gary, George’s son, lived with
his mother for some time before he moved to Canberra
and lived with his father.
George
died on 16 March 1994 in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
aged 84 years 10 months. He was
cremated at Norwood Park Crematorium in
Canberra.
Grateful thanks to Jan
Westcott for writing this biography and also for the photographs used and to
Debra Bateman for the photo of the Dengates and Batemans.
© Copyright N. Goodwin MMII