Former Forest Lake resident and WWII veteran Patrick (Pat) Curtis passed away in April this year at the age of 98.
Pat was a resident of Logan West before moving to Forest Lake in the 1960’s, where he spent the last few decades living with his wife Jan.
MILITARY SERVICE:
Pat Curtis served in the Royal Australian Navy during WWII between the years of 1942 and 1946 serving as a telegraphist aboard the HMAS Westralia.
According to the Australian Government’s Department of Veterans Affairs, Pat was 17 years old when he enlisted.
Following his discharge in 1946, Pat earned a Mention in Despatches for ‘gallantry and outstanding skill and devotion’.
Pat moved to Logan West in 1967 and became a longstanding member of the Greenbank RSL Sub-Branch.
In 2015, The Greenbank RSL sponsored Pat’s application to be one of six veterans chosen from across Australia to be part of a special commemorative trip to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Oboe Landings in Borneo.
In 2020 when asked by The Lake News owner Paul Jackson what Anzac Day meant to Pat, he said he would like people to remember the sacrifice all soldiers had made for our freedom.
“I had an uncle that was killed on ANZAC Day at Gallipoli, and another that was killed in the Battle of the Somme,” he said.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:
Pat and Jan Curtis’s sons, Aaron and Brett were members of the Park Ridge Panthers during the 1980’s.
Pat was one of the key members involved in bringing about federal funding for the Park Ridge Baptist Sporting Association (Panthers), which was completed in 1986 and officially opened in 1987 and continues to serve the area today.
Former chairperson for the Park Ridge Panthers Darryl Sampson said Pat worked hard for up to three years to secure the federal funding before executing the program along with two other committee members.
“He was the key person who was confident we could dot the I’s and cross the T’s and have it all approved – and it was approved,” Darryl said.
“We always had full faith in him that the program would be successful.”
The way the church and the community came together allowed them to achieve more with the funding than the government thought was possible.
Their achievements were noticed by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who attended the official opening of the new fields in 1987 and congratulated the community for their efforts.
Darryl said Pat was a great communicator and had been great to work with while pursuing the project.
“He was a man of integrity – he was a man who did what he said,” Darryl said.
