President Ken advises that due to the restriction to 50 people able to attend the funeral service for Gerry, the service will be live streamed at 2pm on Wednesday 4th August and the link to the service is below:
“Please see below the link to the Tribute Page on our Tobin Brothers Funerals website.
This is where the Webcast/Live Streaming can be viewed.
Through this site you can view the webcast, light a virtual candle and leave a tribute or message.
I hope you find this helpful.”
Ken Crawford advised It is with much sorrow and sadness that I advise that Gerry McPherson passed away this morning at 4:30 am with Faye at his side. Gerry was 96 years.
Gerry was a Life member of ANZROC and was Treasurer for 23 years, retiring from that position in 2009
We were fortunate to have him and Faye attend our ANZAC meeting in April where he gave a talk on his WW2 service and which has been repeated in the last two newsletters.
Vale Gerry
Gerry McPherson
(From Ken Crawford and John Brown)
Gerry was born on 14 November, 1924 in Horsham, Victoria.
He had 44 years of service with the ANZ.
He enlisted on 29 January 1943 and embarked for England on 17 November 1943.
During the war (WW2) he was a rear gunner attached to Lancaster Bomber group, RAF Squadron #186, #5 Group flying out of Stradishall, Suffolk UK.
He was the recipient of France’s “Legion of Honour” in 2015.
Val Goldsworthy (ANZROC member) once ask Gerry about the Cathedral in Cologne (Germany) as it was not damaged during the war and Gerry advised that the Cathedral was a checkpoint for Navigators so it’s preservation was essential for Navigators for air raid directions.
Gerry (and wife Fay) was on the Odd Bods committee (an associated RSL group) for several years.
Gerry was Treasurer of ANZROC from 1984 to 2009, 25 years and was granted Life membership in 1995.
"Gerry was elected to the ANZROC (Vic) committee, and in 1984 he took on the role of Treasurer, a position he held for 25 years, an enormous commitment.
During his time as Treasurer, member details were recorded on around 800 individual hand-written cards that also contained records of annual subscription payments. The cards were held in alphabetical order in about 10 binders.
In those days, member subscription payments were made either by cheque or cash - no electronic payments - and financial records were meticulously hand written by Gerry into a journal for reconciliation with the bank statements each month. As you can imagine, this was a very time consuming job, and I am sure that Fay would have assisted Gerry during the busy times.
Gerry enjoyed his time as Treasurer, but he was happy to hand over the role in 2010 when it was decided to transfer the records and financial accounting to the computerised MYOB system."
