Ey (Sid) Sidney Louis
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 31-5-1919 |
| Principal occupation | Service station proprietor |
| Date of death | 25-9-2019 |
click here for Syd's oral history
click here for all all available photos and funeral card.
Eulogy – Sidney Louis Ey Delivered at Sid’s Funeral on 3rd October 2019 by Brian Tscharke, celebrant. Sidney Louis Ey was born at Gawler on the 31st May 1916, to Elsie and Louis Ey. Sid as he was usually known, was the second of four siblings, an older brother William, and two sisters Kathleen and Muriel. They were raised in Gawler, initially living in Moore St before moving to a house on Light Square in Cowan Street. Sid attended the Gawler Primary and High Schools. While not a brilliant student, he was good at maths. Music was a big part of family life and Sid would become an accomplished piano player and possessed a good singing voice. Sid loved competitive sport, in particular tennis. There was a lawn tennis court in the back yard, and Sid also joined the Tod Street Tennis Club. Sid’s father, Louis worked in the family owned chaff and flour mills at Cowan St, where the Coles supermarket is located today. In 1932, Louis started a grain and commission agency business in Jacob Street, where the Green Corner Kitchen is now located. Shortly after, Sid left school to work with his father. The agency business included the Famers Union agency for receival of grain at both Roseworthy and North Gawler. In those days, wagons loaded with wheat & barley and pulled by teams of six horses hauled the grain to the rail sidings where lumpers built enormous stacks, then unloaded the stacks into rail wagons. In 1934 Sid commenced a wool classing course. For the next six years, he worked as a roustabout and wool classer at numerous sheep stations throughout the north, east and southeast of the state. Travelling to the sheep stations typically involved a train trip to the nearest rail head, then a ride over dusty, dirt roads sitting on top of a station truck loaded with supplies. In 1940, Sid decided to join the army. Bill Denny will talk about Sid’s army years shortly After the war, Sid returned to working with his father. In 1940, the business acquired the government owned Commonwealth Oil Refineries fuel agency, which became a BP agency in the 1950’s. The business delivered stockfeed and fuel to a multitude of dairies, poultry farms, market gardens, cropping and grazing farms around the district. The work was physically demanding as there were no bulk facilities in those days. All the grain was in 3 bushel bags (nominally 80 kilos for wheat) and all the fuel was in 44 gallon drums. A strong back and correct technique for lumping were necessary. Wheeling drums around on their rims and offloading them onto the ground using old tyres as cushions were stock in trade skills. For stock feed supplies, the Gawler Flour Mill was first on the list every morning to pick-up one or more truckloads of bran and pollard which were by-products of the flour milling process. Grain in bags was delivered in goods wagons to North Gawler and rehandled to Jacob Street. Sid first met Beryl Gregory, a nurse from Hawker during the war through his sister Muriel who worked with Beryl at Royal Adelaide Hospital. They married in August 1947 and moved into the family home at Willaston. Both Sid & Beryl were heavily involved in tennis including building the obligatory lawn tennis court at home. They played for Tod Street and each year were busy with the annual Easter tournament. In those days the tennis courts were located around the town, often on church or school land. Around 1960, all Sid’s spare time was consumed in helping build a new lawn tennis centre at Essex Park on Thomas Terrace. The courts, fencing and clubhouse were built almost entirely with volunteer labour. Beryl & Sid had two children, Ross & John. Family life revolved around home-based activities, there being plenty of land around the family home. The tennis court was well used including for football and cricket. Saturday nights were often card nights, where Sid and Beryl would teach the boys to play Contract Bridge. There was no television in the house until the mid-1960’s, when replays of the football started. Through the 1950s to the 1970s, Sid was a dedicated member of the Gawler & Barossa Oratorio Choir, which performed locally, in Adelaide, in the Riverland. At times their performances were broadcast on the radio. Monday nights were always reserved for choir practice. Running the family business limited Sid’s opportunity to take extended family holidays, although he always joined the family on the weekends during their annual Christmas holiday at the beach. Having travelled during the war, Sid was not interested in further overseas travel. However, he enjoyed travel within Australia and in 1972, a Kombi camper was purchased for this purpose. In later years however it was more often used for local deliveries than for travel. Sid and Beryl retired from playing competitive tennis in the early 1960s and took up lawn bowls, joining the Gawler Bowling Club. Both played competitively and socially for over forty years. Sid was a very good bowler, winning the various club singles, pairs or mixed doubles championship many times in the period 1969 to 1985. Sid was club president for three years, and also served for a number of years on the club committee, as a selector including chairman, and for a time as greens manager. Beryl and Sid also regularly travelled to play in other towns on Sundays or long weekends. At dinner time after Sid’s Saturday pennants and after Beryl’s Thursday pennants, the dining table invariably became a makeshift bowling green, as each game turning point was re-enacted using cups, salt & pepper shakers, serviette holders and the like. The development of bulk handling, transport and storage for both grain and fuel in the 1960’s changed the face of stockfeed handling and in fuel distribution. The business needed to adapt to survive. In 1979, when most couples would be looking forward to retirement. Sid, then 63, together with Beryl started a new “adventure” which would continue for 26 years. They bought the BP service station at Willaston, transferring their existing stock feed and fuel agency business to Willaston at the same time. The move allowed the business to expand its customer base and better serve hobby farm owners and retail fuel customers. Their lives now revolved around the demands of a seven day a week business. Apart from time committed to sport, bowls practise and yard maintenance at home, Sid could always be found at the service station. Both Sid and Beryl loved the service station life filled with customer and supplier interaction. Over the years they met untold new people and their families. Through this period, Ross and John each married and raised families. Today there are five grandchildren and one great grandchild, and most of the family members worked in the business at some stage. In 1999 at the age of 83 and with the imminent introduction of the GST, Sid took a step back and handed over running the business to Ross and wife Barbara. In 2005, when the business was eventually sold, it had been operating for 73 years and the association with BP had continued for 65 years. To this day, the family still meet people from all walks of life who recall the days of “the old couple at the Willaston BP”. Sid maintained a strong bond with his army mates from his field ambulance unit, each year attending the annual reunion and Anzac Day march in Adelaide. In later years, there were monthly lunches until Sid was the only one left. In the meantime, Friday nights, later changed to Wednesday afternoons spent at the Gawler RSL became a ritual. In his own humble opinion, Sid reckoned he was quite a handy pool player. In retirement, Sid also joined the Probus club, played bowls, helped Ross at the service station, made sure there was a plentiful supply of chopped wood in winter, water for the fruit trees in summer, and the weeds were kept at bay. For many years, Sid and Beryl travelled to Hawker for the annual Easter bowls tournament and in May for the annual race meeting followed by the iconic family creek party at Cradock. Each January, they would also travel to Melbourne for the Australian Open Tennis. After the war, Sid had packaged up his war experiences and archived them. He seldom spoke about the war apart from general events, and never in any detail. He eschewed an entitlement to a war pension for a knee injury, and got on with work and life instead. The focal points in his life were pretty simple – wanting the best for his family, conducting a reputable business, supporting his community, and playing and watching sport. Sid possessed an immense inner strength and calmness, and was usually unflappable in the face of a challenge. In any company, he could make an impromptu speech, without notes. Sid was a fiercely independent person, relying on his own resourcefulness and ingenuity, rather than others. He was also intensely private, keeping his own council on political, religious, and society issues. Rarely would he be drawn into a discussion on such subjects or anything controversial. He dealt with everyone honestly and fairly and expected the same in return. In that sense he would patiently but doggedly pursue customers who didn’t pay their bills. On one driving holiday to Western Australia, he made a detour to a small country town in the south west to confront an unsuspecting but surprised debtor who have moved from Gawler to the west. Sid got his money. He could also pick a shyster or con artist from a distance. They invariably got short shrift. While Sid took personal pride in the results of his work and contribution to the community, he was embarrassed and humbled at any recognition. Sid never needed a credit card, computer, mobile phone and the like. He conducted all his financial transactions with a cheque or cash, did all mathematical sums and calculations in his head or on paper, and communicated face to face or via a land-line phone. When asked to nominate the most significant changes he had witnessed during his life, he nominated the development of the motor vehicle and the aeroplane. Sid had a favourite saying of “everything in moderation”, and certainly reaped the rewards from a lifestyle reflecting the saying. He also had the benefit of good genes. His father lived to 96 and his auntie to 108. After recovering from an aortic aneurysm at 88, he enjoyed ongoing good health and was able to live at home independently until 6 weeks ago. Beryl & Sid celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary shortly before Beryl passed away in 2017. When interviewed for an article in the Bunyip in 1996 at 80 years of age, Sid proclaimed “Grandfather Ey and Grandfather Dawkins both were in business late in life, and I think if you are going to retire, you may as well make an appointment with Taylor & Forgie”. I think we would all agree, at 103 years of age, Sid did well to put off that appointment until now.
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