2009
By Alice Nicholls
Archives Assignment – John
Griffith
v
Photo Above: John Gerald Griffith, private copy held by Mary
Griffith
John Gerald Griffith was known to be a great, but modest man,
who may not have let known his great achievements in life which I
think deserve to be acknowledged. I will attempt to trace the
various details of his life to shape them into a story for people to
get to know and celebrate the life of John Gerald Griffith. Who he
shared his life with, his family tree, achievements, where he lived,
worked and his view on life will play important roles into telling
Grandpa’s story.
Flinders University
ARCH2002
Australian Historical Archaeology
For Heather Burke
INTRODUCTION:
Historical archaeology is an ongoing collaborative research, where data from numerous sources
can be recorded overtime, enriching the information found particularly through written and oral
sources (Barber 1994, p5).
The aim of this archive assignment is to research the history of a person who once lived in
Adelaide by using various primary sources with the support of secondary sources.
I chose to research my great grandfather, John Gerald Griffith, due to an interest in his side of the
family and because many relations did not get to meet him. John was known to be a great, but
modest man, who may not have let known his great achievements in life which I think deserve to
be acknowledged. I will attempt to trace the various details of his life and shape them into a story
for people to get to know and celebrate the life of John Gerald Griffith. Who he shared his life
with, his family tree, achievements, where he lived, worked and his view on life will play
important roles into telling Grandpa’s story.
METHODOLOGY
The start of my research was a positive one, where oral histories with my Grandma, Mary
Griffith, helped provide insight into the primary information I had found in a box in her shed at
home. The primary resources I found included passport, diary, speech, baptism certificate of
John’s father, marriage certificate of John’s Grandfather, photographs and a newspaper clipping.
The Archives in Adelaide was my second stop, where I was able to order in a copy of Grandpa’s
Defence Service Records. This took a couple of weeks to get sent out from Canberra as the
record had not been officially sorted through yet, however was a vital part in finding out what his
position in the air force was and what achievements he gained.
The State Library in Adelaide was my main source of finding out about John’s German
bloodline, the first Griffith/Landvogt to arrive in Australia and where the name change from
Landvoch to Griffith occurred. From here I accessed birth and death, marriage records and
shipping records which helped me piece together dates and happenings. The bibliographical
index was a very useful tool for gathering information about the first Griffith (Landvoch) to
arrive in Australia, and provided information that the family today was unaware of. It also
provided names of children which I was then able to look up individually in the births and deaths
indexes.
The South Australian Genealogy Society was not much help in this assignment as there was not
much on German background and arrival, however they did provide birth, death and marriage
records as with the State Library.
Electoral rolls are commonly used to trace the names or addresses of individuals and were plentiful in the
State Library. Out of interest I looked into the records but I could only find housing listed under Mary
Griffith’s name (John’s Wife), however I did not really need these records as Grandma had established
where they lived along with his Defence Service Records.
THE LIFE OF JOHN GERALD GRIFFITH
John Gerald Griffith was born10th of April 1924 in Henley Beach (SA Births Index 1907 –
1928, p770). His family consisted of two brothers Hugh Griffith (who died at war) and Joseph
Griffith, father Philip John Griffith (earlier know as Philip John Fransis Landvogt) and mother
Mary Haymen (Profile of John G. Griffith, Appendix 1).
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Life for the Griffith family was soon heavily affected by the Great Depression in the 1930’s, and
lucky than most, his father could support his own family along with other people for a while until
he passed away. Philip John Griffith passed away at a young age of 51 years at Henley Beach on
11 of August 1937, when John was only 12 (SA Deaths Index 1916-1912, p1174). The death
brought much hardship to the family in already a dark time, where Mary Haymen had to shift the
family to North Adelaide to a 100 year old cottage owned by her father. This meant oldest
brother Joseph (b 1919) (SA Births Index 1907-1928, p770) had to quit university where he had
started to study law and his elder brother Hugh had to leave Rostrevor College to get a job, John
being the youngest was able to complete his education at Rostrevor College with all sorts of
sacrifices from his mother (John G Griffith’s Retirement Speech, Appendix 1).
THE WAR
In 1941 John was fortunate to make the entrance standard for the South Australian Public
Service and started work as the junior clerk in the Harbors Board on 25 shillings per week.
During this time John had also started to study accountancy and attended night school, while as it
was a period of war his brothers where in the services, one as a pilot in the Airforce and the other
in the Army. John soon obtained Mary’s permission to join the Airforce, and was called up in
1943, although he had naturally wanted to be a pilot, he finished up as a wireless/air gunner
because of an eye co-ordination problem. John trained in Australia and soon operated as a Staff
Air Wireless Operator at Navigators’ Training Schools in New South Wales, leading to a posting
to the U.K. in 1943 on a ship called the ‘New Amsterdam’ from Melbourne. During this period
in his life, the war, John did not like to discuss or dwell on, however his postings led him to
Northern Scotland, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire.
John finished up as a Mid Upper Gunner on a Lancaster, and worked as a replacement crew for
an Australian Squadron operating from Waddinton in Lincolnshire. Fortunately, the loss of air
crew at the time was less than anticipated and so they were not required in a heavy bombing
capacity. They had started initial planning aimed at taking lancasters to the Japanese War
Theatre, but the Atom Bomb finished everything (John G Griffith’s Retirement Speech,
Appendix 1.
ACHEIVEMENTS
Air Gunners Badge 14/10/43 and Defence Medal (RAAF form 1940).
RETURNING HOME
John returned to Australia around 1946 and resumed work in the harbors board, however work
and study was harder to settle back into. He had no desire to complete his accounting studies,
tried to enter university to study law but found it impossible to live and support his mother on 3
pounds per week. Around 1949 things started to look up, people in Government and the Public
Service helped and allowed him part time study and he then met his wife, Mary Alkamade, and
started to settle down. They had four children, Elizabeth, Virginia, Julianne and Madelyn (my
mother).
THE CAREER
After marrying Mary in 1951, John transferred to the Woods and Forests Department as a Cost
Accountant and soon his Public Service career blossomed as he moved through various
management positions in several departments. A great thrill for John was to be appointed by the
Dunstan/Corcoran Government as the Head of the Department, in the old Harbors Board
building in Victoria Square where he first started as an office boy. This is where John’s career
was at its most challenging, with the shipping and particularly international shipping, the Sea
Port Business and Maritime Affairs all changed greatly in technology, growth, danger and
pollution awareness and large scale sea transport. His duties since 1976 have taken him and
Mary in some periods, to many parts of the world including U.K., Europe, Norway, Sweden,
Finland, United Arab Emirates, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, United States and Canada
where he felt most important for shipping investments (John G Griffith’s Retirement Speech,
Appendix 1).
NEW DIRECTOR
“Mr. John Griffith appointed the new Director of Marine and Harbors. Now Mr. Griffith takes over a
department with 300 salaried and 900 weekly paid employees. As director of the department he will be
responsible to the Marine Minister for the development and management of the State’s commercial
ports” West-Side, Wednesday, January 14, 1976 – 3 (Newspaper clipping, Appendix 1).
NAME CHANGE
John’s father, Philip John Fransis Landvogt grew up in Henley Beach of South Australia (SA
Deaths Index 1916 – 1972, p 1174) and like Landvogt, many German Australians before World
War 1 were greatly respected for their contributions to their State and Country. However during
WW1 where Germany was the enemy, many British Australians forgot about German
Australians contributions to the country and thought that all Germans in Australia fully
supported the German Kaiser (emperor) even though many German Australians were in the
Australian Army and fought and died for Australia. On the war memorial in the public gardens
of Tanunda (Barossa Valley) are the names of eight soldiers who fell in the War, six of them
being German names (Nutting, D. 2001).
Thus life was hard for German Australians after the war as German schools closed down,
German names of towns changed, German Australians living in the country for three generations
even found it almost impossible to gain or keep employment. Thus people like Philip and his
family had to change their name, where Landvogt was changed to Griffith, in order to live a
normal life in their own country. The name Griffith was picked from Philip’s mother’s side of
the family, Mary Jane Jelly’s parents was Willium Jellie and Mary Jane Griffith (See appendix 1,
Marriage Certificate).
THE FIRST GERMAN AUSTRALIAN LANDVOGT ARRIVAL
John Gerald Griffith’s Great Grandfather (John Philip Landvogt) was the first Landvogt in the
blood line to arrive to Australia on March 5 1885 aboard the ship ‘Australia’, from Hamburg,
Germany (Shipping Index 1836 – 1900 K-Z).
John Philip Landvogt was born around 1832, and died in 1912 where he resided in Norwood
(BISA 1836-1885, p 950). He first married Margaret Mulloy (1833 – 1902) and had four
children: Anes (1865-1892), Whma Eva (1868), Lilly (1869 – 1893) and Cecilia (18700-1892).
This first marriage is unheard of in the family today, and was a completely new discovery. It is
John Philip’s second marriage with Minnie McMahon (1870 – 1907) that had their only child
together, John Francis Landvogt (1916-1972) Grandfather of John Gerald Griffith. John Philip
was around 38 years older than Minnie, when they married he was 71 and she was only 28
(BISA 1836-1885, p 950).
CONCLUSION
Historical Archaeology involves much loose ends, dead ends, small leads and much detective
work in order to put together a collaboration of a person’s life. The research done in this
assignment has given me inspiration to carry on with the research of my Grandfathers history to
even further back, and even my Grandmothers side. This assignment covers most of John Gerald
Griffiths active life, however shows there is so much more to research with his family members.
There is no end to the information and resources you can use to find out about family trees.
REFERENCE BOOKS:
Barber, R. 1994. “Doing Historical Archaeology: Exercises using documentary,
oral and material evidence”. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
Nutting, D. 2001, “The effects of the First World War on Australia’s German-speakers”,
German Australia, viewed online 17 May 2009,
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/dnutting/germanaustralia/e/ww1.htm
STATE LIBRARY:
Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Inc 2006, “SA DEATHS index of registrations 19161972”, p 1174, Gillingham Printers Pty Ltd, Adelaide
Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Inc 2004, “SA BIRTHS index of registrations 1907 –
1928”, p 770, Gillingham Printers Pty Ltd, Adelaide
Shipping Index 1936-1900, K-Z, Register Newspaper (R1855/24) and the Adelaide Times
(1855/23)
Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Inc 2004, “Biographical Index of South Australians
1836-1885 L-R”volume 3, p 950
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA
National Archives of Australia, Defence Service Records, series A9301, Item number 437412,
barcode 5551096 (33 pages), Canberra Business Centre ACT
APPENDIX 1
PRIVATE SOURCES
Profile of John G. Griffith, Director General of Marine and Harbors SA, private copy held by
Mary Griffith
John G Griffith’s Retirement Speech, personal copy held by Mary Griffith
Newspaper clipping, ‘West Side’ Wednesday Jan 14 1976, NEW DIRECTOR, private copy held
by Mary Griffith
Marriage Certificate of Mary Jane Jelly and Willium Griffith, private copy held by Mary Griffith