contributed by Karen Mitic, great niece, granddaughter of his twin sister, Vere (May 2011 edition newsletter).
As a young boy growing up in Longreach, Harry Richardson owned a sailor’s hat which he used to take along to the Laundromat which was operated by Japanese. He used to say to them “here Japs wash my hat”. His twin sister, Vere always thought that was ironic as it was the Japanese in the end that got him back.
Harry and Vere were born to Mary (Maree) Wagner and Frederick Henry Richardson. Harry was the only son of five children. He was born with auburn hair and blue eyes on the 26 January 1919 in Alderley, Qld. His sisters were Violet (1912-2009), Ellen Mary (Nell) died in 1961, Vere (Harry’s twin) who turned 91 last year (Ed. 2010), and Doris Elizabeth, b.1928 and living in Hervey Bay.
The family moved back to Brisbane and as a teenager he worked with his father who was a painter and owned his own painting business. My Grandmother’s memory is not too great these days, but there is one thing she definitely remembers: that his handwriting was atrocious. He couldn’t understand his own handwriting and as a child had to copy from my Grandmother’s homework that she brought home.
He had a girlfriend, “Betty” but that is all that can remembered of her.
He joined the Army and was a Private. He was registered in the 2/12th Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. When he came back to say goodbye to the family before he left for Sydney to go on the Centaur’s voyage up north, he told my Grandmother, that he wasn’t coming back and that that time would be the last that she would see him. It was as though he knew something. He had that feeling and my Grandmother said that she also had the feeling that he was right too. He was 24 years old when he perished on the Centaur. Apparently his knapsack washed ashore around North Caloundra, but we are unaware as to what happened to it.
His best mate was Horace Henry Lowe “Lofty” or “Bub”. He was also a Private in the 2/12 Field Ambulance and lost at sea on the Centaur.
It is believed that the Lowe family told my Grandmother that both Harry and his mate went out to a party the night before they were to leave port and apparently had such a big night that they missed the departure of the Centaur and had to be taken out to the ship, it is believed by seaplane