Over noodles and associated nosh at a gathering of Darwin’s Friday Club, its regular members showing signs of wear and tear but no apparent use of Grecian 2000 , a little known expression of esteem for the late NT crusading editor, James Frederick Bowditch , surfaced. It was stated that the late Bruce Perkins, of Perkins Shipping , who ran barges about the NT coast and to Asia , had been an admirer of Bowditch when he was the editor of the Northern Territory News. A Britisher like Bowditch, Perkins reportedly said he stopped reading the NT News when Bowditch left the paper in the 1970s as it had nothing to say of interest . The above illustration is the cover for Perkins’s biography written by his daughter , Mandaley, published by Bantam Books . It carries an extract from The letters of Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop...VB Perkins is the personification of Kipling’s If ...a fascinating account of a life full of rich, colourful adventure. VB’s life included the fall of Singapore, time in the infamous Changi prison and living in Malaya during the emergency. VB and JB had many dealings in Darwin , some social over a libation or two , and at times in connection with waterfront industrial disputes. Bowditch's extraordinary bravery during WW11 saw him awarded the DCM and an American medal. Substantial coverage was recently provided nationally about the 70th anniversary of the fierce battle at Milne Bay , New Guinea, where the Japanese suffered their first defeat. Bowditch, whose biography is being serialised in Little Darwin, was in the thick of the fighting at Milne Bay , not far from where Corporal John Alexander French was killed, resulting in him being awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. At the time of the recent Milne Bay anniversary it was stated that the important battle was little known in Australia. It certainly was forgotten here in Darwin when the local media failed to mention that one of its renowned residents, the great editor , Jim Bowditch , had fought there .
