The text below is reproduced as a faithful transcription of the printed article, retaining its wording, spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing. A scanned image of the original clipping is included at the end of this post for reference, authentication, and family archive purposes.
Obituary
Reverend David Oswald Aldridge
Born December 26, 1926
Died October 8, 2010
REVEREND David Aldridge’s grandchildren never had a hope in escaping Swock.
Reverend Aldridge would terrorise his grandchildren – innocently of course – with Swock the hand puppet, leaving them in fits of laughter.
Reverend Aldridge’s great loves were God and family.
Born in Egypt, Reverend Aldridge moved with his family to Melbourne and studied engineering.
He first called Burnie home in 1946, when he arrived to work at the APPM as an engineering design draftsman.
Upon arrival to the Coast, Reverend Aldridge joined the Baptist Church and was baptised.
Reverend Aldridge’s son Peter said from that moment his father had an instant family.
“This church and its people, and this town became the centre of his life that he continued up to today,” Mr Aldridge said.
“Here he met and fell in love with my mother, Ruth, and they became engaged.”
Committed to Christian service, he studied for five years at the Victorian Baptist Theological College, which later lead to his ordination.
He and Ruth married in 1952, and left for the Highlands of New Guinea, to the Enga people, as missionaries.
During their period in New Guinea, David and Ruth had the first four of their children, Peter, Cathryn, Judith and Susan.
“He didn’t seek personal glory, power or excessive wealth and possessions although he could have gained any of these attributes. He did what had to be done with the minimum of fuss, and as well as he could.
“He believed it was important to pass this faith on to other people, and did so starting with his family, and the members of the church he was ministering in at the time.”
The family left New Guinea in 1959 for the Newstead Baptist Church and made their family complete with the arrival of their youngest son Mark.
Later Reverend Aldridge joined the Ulverstone and Wynyard Baptist Church, as well as the Army, Tasmanian Command as the chaplain in 1959, which he held for 25 years.
While at the Wynyard church in 1968, the first signs of his wife’s debilitating illness became evident, which led to her full time hospitalisation.
Ruth lost her battle in 1981.
Throughout his wife’s battle, Reverend Aldridge stepped back to part time ministry and started at Wynyard High School as a teacher.
He rose to Senior Master before he retired in 1987 from Wynyard High School and had a short stint at Parklands High.
Reverend Aldridge continued his Church pastoral work, mainly part-time, after retiring from teaching until his complete retirement in 1998.
Peter remembers his father as being very task oriented, in particular the time he decided to stop writing letters to a long time friend, Margaret.
“He had gone to England to propose marriage to Margaret, and she was blissfully unaware of his intentions until he asked her almost as soon as he arrived – within hours.”
“Together they would spend the next 28 years, honouring God by their lives, and ministering to people, in recreation and in travel.”
Retirement led him to focus on his hobbies – fishing, travel, gardening, music, writing and family.
“Hymns and classical music were part of our lives from as early as I can remember.
“Hymns and songs would sound throughout the house, and the recorder was always within easy reach.”
Peter fondly remembers a kitchen garden tended by his father.
In the late 1960s Reverend Aldridge bought some land at Sisters Beach, and largely on his own built what the family all know as the shack.
Most of the furniture was made by Reverend Aldridge.
“It became for him, and the family, a refuge, a retreat.
“It still holds that mystique for many in the family.”
Original newspaper clipping (scan)
The scan below is included so the original printed layout and photograph can be viewed alongside the transcription.
