Two white
warriors- each near the
end of his
life- lay in
beds in a Darwin hospice. Like scarred bull
elephants , they had both
returned from the
south to their old stamping grounds to die
. They
were friends
who had not
been in contact
with each other
for some years . Now
they were practically
next to each other
in beds but
because of a
cruel twist of
fate and their
afflictions they did
not know. They were
Jim Bowditch and
Allan Alexander-Stewart, the Great
White Hunter . Bowditch
had been in
poor health for some time and also
suffered from loss of memory and emphysema. Alexander - Stewart (the name hyphenated to capture the donkey vote in an election in which he failed to be elected ), had slight peripheral vision.
Visiting her
father , Ngaire Bowditch
saw the name Stewart
and immediately identified
him as her father’s friend. She introduced
herself to Stewart
and told him her
dad was in
a bed a
short distance away . Stewart became emotional
and cried out ,
“ Jimmy Bowditch ! I’ve
searched the country for him ,
and now I
find out he
is in the
bed next to me!
’’ He began to weep. Ngaire then
explained the situation
to her father who said , “Don’t worry old mate.” Bowditch , 76 , died of pneumonia
at the Chan Park Nursing Home
on October 5, l996.
That
he had lived so long , having led such a hectic life , surprised
many , including his wife . His daughter,Sharon, rang the Sydney
home of reporter Jim Oram who was suffering from cancer . Oram
had given instructions
earlier in the day
that he would
not take any
telephone calls. However,
when he heard
Jim had died
he spoke to Sharon.
 |
TOP: Overview of burial with bugler . ABOVE : Mrs Betty Bowditch ( blue top dress) , daughters Ngaire and Sharon , granddaughter Candice ; behind them sons Steven, left, and Peter (sunglasses ).
Of
the many newspaper tributes paid to
Bowditch there was one from Robert Wesley-Smith which read : Jim Bowditch hero, hero, hero,hero. Last crusader editor, needed you for East Timor too.
In a letter to the editor of the NT News, one admirer of
Bowditch said much had been written
in the media since his death about his
larrikinism over the years . Just
one of his wartime
experiences -that of sitting in a
cramped and stifling submarine with
Japanese vessels intent on blowing
it up patrolling overhead for l8 hours – would be enough to make
anybody a bit bent
; allowances should have been made for
his subsequent behaviour.
At the
packed funeral chapel
service for Bowditch
it began and
ended with the strains
of Afro-American human
rights campaigner Paul Robeson whose
music was seen
by the Bowditch family as
symbolising Jim’s lifelong
struggle for the
underdog. Bowditch might
have met Robeson
who passed through
Darwin in October
l960 on his
way to Sydney .
Because of
his open support
for Communist ideas and
a visit he
made to Russia ,
Robeson had been shabbily
treated in America.
The News had once carried a report which said
that during an airline
stopever in Darwin the singer and
human rights campaigner had spent
two hours with
unionists Mr and Mrs Des
Robson.
Furthermore, the newspaper announced that a
committee, including NT News reporter
Jim Kelly, had been
formed to try and get
Robeson to perform in
Darwin on his
way back to
America. During Robeson’s
visit to Sydney he sang to
workers on the
Opera House site . Comments he made about the plight
of Australian Aborigines
were reported in the NT
News .
Jim’s
son-in-law, Col Allan, at the time editorial manager
of the Sydney
Daily Telegraph and Sunday
Telegraph , spoke on behalf
of the family at the funeral service . He said
Jim had been
a complex, yet simple
man who would
not have wanted
all the fuss
and writes ups
that followed
his death . Allan
continued : “ It is only
here that I feel safe
saying such things
about him, relatively sure
that he will
not appear in
that familiar crouch,
hands thrust forward
in a combat position demanding that
I not eulogise him but
instead attack the
Labor Party for betraying its
ideals.”
Communist activist
Brian Manning who
had fought many
campaigns with Bowditch made an emotional speech . In particular,
he mentioned the
Stayput Malays and
the part Bowditch
had played in
helping to do
away with the
White Australia policy . Manning raised an
important issue - the
counselling of soldiers
returning home from
horrific wartime experiences. Manning went
on to say
he often felt
the armed services were seriously
remiss in not
providing professional counselling
to servicemen like Jim who, although he served with
valour and distinction
, did not
relish war and
had great difficulty in
coming to terms with
what he had
done.
Much,
he said, had
been made of
the drinking exploits
of Jim. “ I am
sure he caused his
family much anguish
as do all
who over -indulge,” said Manning . He recalled the
incident when Jim
had been barred
from the RSL
after kicking its
glass door. In an
agitated frame of
mind, he had called
on Manning in
the Workers’ Club and
admonished himself for
his killings in
the war.
John
Waters ,QC, said the Top End’s
record of racial tolerance during
the period from the l950s to
the early 70s was
due to one man- Jim Bowditch.
Another eulogy , faxed from
New York , came from
journalist Peter Blake and read: “ I suspect Jim Bowditch was the last of
his kind-the small-town newspaper
editor who believed that treading
on sensitive , prominent and
powerful toes went with the territory - and that included those who paid his wages. He
edited the paper in bravura
fashion without ever looking over his shoulder at
the people who owned it. It was a
style and philosophy that made
the NT News a perfect
mirror of its community-outspoken, brash,
cheeky, quirky, and yes , a
bit rough around the edges.”
He described
Bowditch’s office in the Old
Tin Bank as having
been marginally bigger
than the lavatory . Of Jim’s
grog problem, Blake
said it had brought
him a ton
of grief , but he
never wallowed in
self pity or
blamed his war
experiences... “ But those
who knew and loved
him believed the
things he’d been
forced to do tore
him apart.”
At the
cemetery burial ceremony
there was an
RSL Honour Guard
made up of
front line veterans
from WW11 , Korea and
Vietnam . As
a mark of
respect for another
front line soldier , a
slouch hat and
a bayonet had
been placed on
the coffin . Jim’s
eldest son, Peter, expressed
concern about the
items on the
coffin. If they
did not belong
to his father, he
said he did
not want them
on the coffin .
There were to be
no false
trappings at his
father’s burial .
A wake
was held at
the Aviation Club
and stories flowed .
Included in the
throng were people who
had worked in
the old Tin
Bank. Betty Bowditch and her
close knit Hodgson
family were there in
force .
A newspaper
account of the
funeral said because
of a clash
with parliamentary sittings
some “ old political
friends and foes” were
unable to attend . Journalist
Jim Oram died
soon after - December 19 ; rather
than attend his
wake, Jim’s daughter
Sharon , expecting a child ,
went home and
gave birth to
a daughter that
night. She named
the baby Kate
J - just the initial - which stands for
the two Jims ,
Bowditch and Oram .
The
Bowditch name was intended to be commemorated by an
Award for Excellence in Print Journalism to be presented by the Darwin Press Club ; it is unclear if this happened . There is, however , a
Bowditch tile in 200 Remarkable Territorians on the
Esplanade in Darwin , part of the Bi-Centennial Celebrations . Of the others listed in the above panel, Bowditch had personal contact with most of them . Many years later , Darwin named a street after him. NEXT: A medical explanation.
