Friday, April 28, 2023
Peter was born in Victoria 2 yrs prior to WWII. In 1939 our father, Samuel John Craddock Dufty sailed on the Queen Mary, a soldier in the 1st battalion of Australian infantry. All through the war dad carried a photo of him and Douglas our older brother next to his heart. As a child, Pete joined his brother on our grandparents’ farm in Dandenong. They moved to Hoddles Creek and in his teens and along with farm chores, he also learned carpentry. He joined the Australian Army and was posted in Sydney for a few years. I was a kid and he showed me much affection. We spent happy times together. Whilst living with us he received a framed portrait of a young woman from Ballarat, Victoria, Deirdre Roberts whom he married. They lived in Sydney where a beautiful son, Mark was born to them, followed soon after by a blonde bombshell daughter, Karen, both adored by their teenage aunt. Peter made rank and was posted to Vietnam where he trained American soldiers all the while undergoing the traumas of warfare in a foreign land. (A penchant the Yanks had that had to be broken was wearing scented after shave which posed a danger as it could be detected by the VietCong.) A few years after returning to Australia the PS Dufty family were posted to Papua New Guinea in the mid-1970s during its transition to independence. They lived back in Victoria and also Engadine, NSW. When they moved to the NSW south coast he enjoyed to the full his love of fishing. (Many people may remember Duff’s tackle shop in Sussex Inlet.) He made annual trips Up North for barramundi which was flash frozen and he became expert at cooking tempura style. He was talented in many ways; he made beautiful furniture and in later years derived great pleasure developing the art of raising bonsai trees. I married a USAF pilot in 1970 and left Australia so I regretfully never had enough time with Peter, Dee, Mark, and Karen. But I loved my brother and his family dearly and missed him sorely. I’ll miss him always but know he is in God’s memory as well as ours, and that although he sleeps now, we can take comfort from the Biblical promise of the resurrection.
