Peter Richard Coote (1926-2017) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Mr Peter Richard Coote

Born 16 Feb 1926 in Samarai, Papua New Guinea

Ancestors

Son of Philip Coote and Rhoda (Scott) Coote

Brother of Philip Dion Coote and [private sister (1930s - unknown)]

Husband of [private wife (1920s - 2010s)]

Descendants

Father of Andrea (Coote) Williams, Victoria Coote and [private son (1960s - unknown)]

Died 5 May 2017 at age 91 in St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Rob Coote

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Profile last modified 22 Feb 2023 | Created 19 Jun 2015

This page has been accessed 1,323 times.

1 Biography
2 Sources

Biography

Peter Richard Coote was born in Samarai, on the Louisiade Archipelago, British New Guinea

Mr Peter Coote served in the Australian Army in World War II
Service started: 23 Mar 1944
Unit(s): Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit
Service ended: 15 Jan 1947

DNA

Maternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between Peter Coote and his Third cousin Hudson-12693. Their most recent common ancestors are their 2nd great grandparents, James O'Connell and Margaret McCarthy. Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: 3rd Cousins, based on sharing 51 cM across 4 segments;

Medical

Cause of Death -: (i) Left subdural haemorrhage, 9 days; (ii) fall in a nursing home (mechanical), 9 days
Duration of Last Illness: (i) Parkinson's Disease; (ii) Macular Degeneration; (iii) Osteoarthritis

Early History

From the age of 11 he attended, as a Boarder, Knox Grammar School, Wahroonga, NSW, Australia

War Years

23rd Mar 1944: Recruit Reception Depot: Enlisted with the Australian Military Forces at Hornsby, NSW;
29 March 1944: 1 Australian Recruit Training Battalion;
11 Apr 1944: Conducted Army Infantry Training at Cowra, NSW;
2 June 1944: 14 Australian Infantry Training Battalion
28 September 1944: 41/2 Australian Infantry Battalion
11 November 1944: Transferred to Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU);
Promotion to Seargent confirmed on 9 Aug 1945;
Promoted to Warrant Officer Class Two (WO2) on 16 Oct 1945
25 June 1946: Headquarters 8 Military District;
Operational Service: New Guinea 11 November 1944 to 5 July 1946
6 July 1946: Eastern Command General Details Depot;
1 August 1946: Liverpool Prisoner of War and Interrogation Camp;
Discharged from the Army on 15 Jan 1947

Medals

Honoured for Service to his Country -

Funeral

The Funeral Service for Peter Richard Coote was held in the North Chapel of Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Delhi Road, North Ryde on Monday, 15th May 2017 at 2.15 pm. Officiating was Mr Philip Grace.

Memorial

Peter Richard Coote was cremated at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Delhi Road, Ryde, NSW, Australia. A plaque in his honour is located in the "Waratah" section - 4 F 38

Personal Biography

(This information is an extract from a life summary, as recalled by Peter Coote with the assistance of Andrea Williams and outlined in the Seabeach Gardens Retirement Village (Mona Vale) Newsletter on October 2011)

Peter Richard Coote was born on 16th February 1926 at Samarai, Papua. (Samarai is on the eastern tip of the PNG mainland near Milne Bay).

When Peter was one year old, his parents moved to Rabaul where his father was the Manager of Bums Philp.

Peter attended primary school in Rabaul and at the age of 1O, he was enrolled as a boarder at Knox Grammar School at Wahroonga.

In 1937, soon after he enrolled at Knox there was a volcanic eruption in Rabaul, and his family moved to the north coast where they built a new home at Tavui.

In December 1941 Japan entered the Pacific War after attacking Pearl Harbour. Six weeks later, with Rabaul strategically located in the Pacific, on the 23rd January 1942, it was invaded by the Japanese. Information had filtered through to the Japanese that the new house at Tavui was to be used as the Australian army headquarters so, on a pre-invasion air raid, the new house, was bombed and blown to bits. Peter's father escaped by diving into a slit trench.

Just before Christmas 1941 the women and children, including his mother and sister, were given one hour to pack a small suitcase and evacuated by ship to Australia. The family never heard from his father again.

While the family heard that his father had attempted to escape down the south coast of New Britain with a party of Administration people, the family was later told that all civilian men and army personnel, 1053 men, had surrendered and were taken as prisoners of the Japanese and, five months later, boarded on the "Montevideo Maru". This ship was torpedoed by an American Submarine, and it was the only hell ship where all on board were lost. This was the largest sea-borne tragedy of the war. Peter's mother, Rhoda, was given no information about her husband for four years!

Peter left school in 1942; he spent a year with Burns Philp in Sydney and then enlisted in the Army as soon as he turned 18.

After infantry training at Cowra, he went back to New Guinea where he joined 'ANGAU" (Australian N.G. Administrative Unit) as a cadet patrol officer; he did patrols in the Markham Valley near Lae; the Central Highlands out of Mount Hagen and the south coast of New Britain.

After Army discharge, Peter returned to Rabaul with Burns Philp. His mother and sister were keen to return too and, in 1948, they purchased a small cocoa plantation ("Vunapau") 20 miles out of Rabaul on a rough dirt road. Life was pretty primitive with only a grass thatched roof bush house to live in.

In 1952 they had the opportunity to purchase another plantation, "Langu", in the Witu Islands which was 200 miles out of Rabaul. It was during this time that Peter went to Sydney to purchase a workboat; here he met up with Margaret Hamilton with whom he had worked at Burns Philp in Sydney.

Peter & Margaret married in 1954 and built a home in the Witu Islands where a ship called with supplies only every 6-8 weeks if they were lucky. Having come from Sydney Peter was very aware of the isolation to which Margaret would be subjected while living in the Witu Islands, but she quickly adapted to the different pioneering lifestyle. They had three children: Andrea (1955), Victoria (1958) and Robert (1960).

When Andrea was only two years old, she contracted Whooping cough and almost died. Whooping cough was in epidemic proportions on the island and most of the native children died.

Peter & Margaret decided that it was time to move closer to civilisation and went back to Rabaul, building a new home overlooking the harbour.

Peter established a business dealing in agricultural chemicals, fertilisers, etc (Elvee Trading).

In 1985, following the threat of a further volcanic eruption and the uncertainty of the independence movement by the indigenous population, they decided to return to Australia.

The family settled in Lismore on a small farming property growing avocados and Tahitian limes; Margaret had a family home in Mosman, and she and Peter commuted between Lismore & Mosman.

Realising that the work was becoming more strenuous and missing contact with the family, Peter made the decision to move to Mona Vale in 2010.

In 2013, and with declining health, Peter moved to an Aged Care facility at Northbridge, NSW.

Sources

Information from a family member.
Williams, Andrea. "60 years in PNG - reflections of a daughter on the life of Peter Richard Coote." Una Voce, September 2017, 16-18
Birth Certificate: Territory of Paua. No. in Register: 389.
Australia, World War II Military Service Records
Burns Philp & Company Staff Records
NSW Marriage Index 20992/1954
"When the War Came: New Guinea Islands 1942" ISBN 978-0-6480085-1-4: P. 83-90
AWM Reflections - Honouring Australian Second World War Veterans
New South Wales Death Certificate: Reg. No: 431235/2017

Memories: 2

Enter a personal reminiscence or story.

Rob Coote

Some favourite poems of Dad's that he would recite occasionally (learnt as a child):

On a bibbly bonty hill stands a bibbly bonty house, In the bibbly bonty house there are bibbly bonty people, The bibbly bonty people have bibbly bonty children; The bibbly bonty children take a bibbly bonty sup, from a bibbly bonty spoon and a bibbly bonty cup.

Humpity Dink, Humpity Dink, Why does the elephant never wink, look at him, laugh at him, see him blink, Humpity, humpity, humity dink.

posted 13 May 2021 by Rob Coote [thank Rob]

Rob Coote

Dad’s memories – as recorded by Victoria Coote on 5th March 2012.

Homelife …

The first house I remember was in Malaguna Road, Rabaul TPNG. It was around 1930, so I was about 3 or 4 years old. The house was raised up off the ground and was made of timber. My early childhood memories are of standing next to the Verandah railing and peeing through the vertical Verandah slats.

We had two house staff, called “Warburia” and “Chicatoi”. These are the years before Diana was born.

The next house was “Haus Rakaia”, located on the ridge overlooking Sulphur Creek on Rapindik Road, Rabaul. A two Storey concrete floor house built for the manager of the Nord Deutscher Lloyd Company during the German administration and occupation prior to World War 1.

Our family lived in Haus Rakaia until approximately 1938. We moved out because of the volcanic eruption (Matupit and Vulcan) in 1937. The house was covered in Volcanic ash and was deep in ash inside – to the point that you could determine distinct footprints. The land extended to the Sulphur Creek inlet and was large enough to graze a horse. (the Carson family had their horse “Guinea Gold” grazing there). Attached to Haus Rakaia was a guest house. Ir had to stay in the guest house in isolation once after returning from Boarding school in Sydney Australia, as there had been an outbreak of measles or chickenpox. The guest house was 50 yards away from the main house. There were no other people living nearby.

Haus Rakaia was on a hill with a long driveway leading to it – may be a couple of hundred meters. Philip, Peter’s father, was the then General Manager of Burns Philp for Rabaul. The house overlooked a coconut plantation owned by W R Carpenter & Co; the nearest other house was a plantation house lived in by the Bischoff family, an engineer for Carpenters. Con Bischoff – who was a year or two older than me – was one of my best friends.

The best thing your Dad or Mum taught you were…

I can not remember much of my dad. I was sent to boarding school at age eleven. My mother, Rhoda, taught me to always ‘set an example of care and kindness and goodwill to everyone. ‘Be tolerant and endearing’. Both parents were very mild-mannered – they never smacked or got angry with me.

Your best friends from childhood were …

Before I went to Knox Grammar School in Sydney as a boarder, my best friends were Con Bischoff and Dick Tate from Rabaul. (Both of them were killed when the Japanese invaded Rabaul. Both their names are on plaques at Bita Paka War Cemetery).

At Knox Grammar School, my friends were – Boyd Marshall, Don Clyde-Smith and Alan Crawford. (Boyd joined the Air Force in WW2 and was killed in action; Don was killed in a car accident)

In Rabaul, I would go sailing in a dinghy with Con and Dick. The dinghy was kept at Sulphur Creek. We also dug tunnels in the pumice (after the 1937 eruption). There had been torrential rain during and after the eruption causing 8 foot high walls and 8-foot land gullys. We dug tunnels to bring in the fresh air – was dangerous. We also went shooting with air guns at Sulphur Creek. We used to shoot at other kids (about the same age). We used to also go swimming but didn’t have masks to go swimming over the reef.

At Knox, all the boys lived in the Boarding house – no day pupils. Don and Alan were country boys, and I used to visit their properties in the holidays. They were both sheep and cattle properties. I also went to Joadja in NSW with Bill Spence.

Alan Crawford’s place was beyond Bourke, and so we had to overnight en route at a big property. The staff there had been out to shoot camels. At Crawford's place, I was given an old racehorse to ride. I was wearing spurs, and so, when the horse took off over the horizon, I got scared and so dug by heals in. They had to come looking for me.

When I visited Don Clyde-Smith’s place, called “Craddock” near Inverell, I remember Chamberlain, who was the British PM, declared war on Germany (3rd Sep 1939).