Rev David Churchill WILSON [1157]

   Another name for David was David Comber WILSON.

  General Notes:

Memories of Her Father. Lexie Oldfield 2013
David left Adelaide with his family when he was 2 and moved to Bunbury when his father took up the position of Bishop in that Diocese. With his parents away a lot of the time - his father having to cover a large area in his ministry and never having learned to drive his wife, Ethel, drove him everywhere - the children were left at home with nurses and governesses. At 6 years old David was sent to an all-girls school which he hated, from there he went to Guildford Grammar in Perth which he also hated. He was terribly homesick and longed to be back in Bunbury.
Hoping to follow his father and older brother into the priesthood, he moved to Adelaide to study at St Barnabas College, however, he discovered that was not what he wanted to do and so before finishing his studies he moved back to Perth. He was ordained as a deacon which enabled him to take church services and perform other tasks within the church.
He was working at Christ Church in Claremont where Verna Ball was attending services. They married in 1943 and after having their first child moved to Denmark in the south west of WA to take up dairy farming. That was not successful financially and he had to find work elsewhere while Verna stayed on running the farm and bringing up four children. It was a hard and lonely existence for her.
In 1968 they moved to Perth and he took work at Chamberlain John Deere. He had several jobs before retiring. At about 70 years of age he decided to learn to play the piano and enjoyed the next few years learning and practising that.

He loved his family with all his heart, and had a good many friends who enjoyed his wonderful sense of humour. His greatest hobbies were cricket and classical music, particularly Beethoven and Gilbert & Sullivan. He also loved the English language and insisted on it being spoken properly. He was a talented craftsman when it came to making furniture and other things out of wood. Verna painted many oil paintings and David made the frames for them to go in. Some of the happiest moments in his life were spent pottering about in his shed and he missed it deeply when they had to sell up and move to a smaller unit when they were both in their 80s. David was only in the unit a few years when he became too frail for Verna to care for him and he moved into a hostel nearby. after breaking his hip he had to go into a nursing home. Once again he missed home, but his bright and positive personality seemed to keep him buoyed up and we rarely saw him unhappy. He endeared himself to all the staff at the home and he stayed there until his death in 2009.

  Research Notes:

David was baptised and registered as David Comber Wilson but on the 8 Feb 1983 changed his name to David Churchill Wilson.

  Other Records

1. David Churchill Wilson: Some images from his life.

David married Verna E BALL [4354] [MRIN: 1497], daughter of Nathaniel BALL [12081] and Ester Dorothy PORTEOUS [12082], on 27 Feb 1943. (Verna E BALL [4354] was born on 4 Dec 1920 in Tambellup WA and died on 18 Feb 2017 in Perth W.A..)