Childhood, 1914 to 1932

My father, Charles Fenner, had been appointed to the Ballarat School of Mines in November 1914, and, with his wife, Peggy, and Lyell, the only child at that stage, had moved into a house at 2 Doveton Street, Ballarat. I was born there on December 21, 1914, the second of a family of five. I was given the name ‘Frank Johannes’, the second name being that of my grandfather. The house was right next to 101 Eyre Street (which we used to pronounce ‘Ay-er’), where Mother's two unmarried sisters and a widowed sister lived. Later, when we had moved to Adelaide, one or other of the children would be sent to stay with their aunts for the Christmas holidays. On my father's appointment as Superintendent of Technical Education in South Australia, in November 1916, the family (now three children, with the birth of my sister Winifred in Ballarat on 28 August, 1916) moved to Adelaide and initially lived in a rented house in Barton Terrace, North Adelaide. In 1918, the family moved to a house in 42 Alexandra Avenue, Rose Park, which was very close to the Rose Park Primary School, where all five children received their primary education.

In the latter part of 1938, when I was in final year Medicine at the University of Adelaide, I must have been getting worried about Hitler's antics and thought that I should change my second name from ‘Johannes’ to ‘John’, a change which Father endorsed before a Justice of the Peace on 11 October, 1938. Several German place names in South Australia were also changed at that time. In retrospect, it must have been hurtful to my father, since it was the only acknowledgement of his parents in the children's names, but I don't remember knowing of any misgivings he may have had. For many years, I have rarely used the name ‘John’ or the initial ‘J’—only ‘Frank’.