Kendall, Thomas John

VALE: Thomas John Kendall
November 1, 1939 – October 11, 1998

Thomas John Kendall was tragically killed on October 11 while test flying a new Gyrocopter.
He had been flying for nearly six years and had 1,150 hours of flying experience.
Tom Kendall was born at Cleveland, the eldest son and second child of Tom and Flo Kendall, on November 1, 1939, not long after the outbreak of the Second World War.
The war was to loom over the family’s head for the first six years of Tom’s life, while his father and uncles served in the A.I.F.
After the war, the family spent a couple of years at Lowood and then returned to Cleveland where they remained until 1954. In that year, after the untimely death of Tom’s uncle, Bob Swanson, the family moved to ‘Birricannia’, Prairie, and this was to remain Tom’s home for the rest of his life after finishing his schooling at Dowlands College in Toowoomba in 1956.
In 1965, Tom worked at a Jesuit Mission in Bihar State in India and returned to Australia in December that year.
In April 1966, he married Wendy Forster, who was at that time house-keeping for her brother, Peter, at ‘Ashra’, near Muttaburra. In due course, Katherine, Peter and John were born.
Kath married Mark Williams and Tom’s beloved grandchildren, Paddy, Tom, Emily and Fred, arrived.
Tom was a family man through and through – a wonderful son, husband, father, grandfather and brother. He was also a keen supporter of local Race Clubs, and in earlier days although he was much too heavy to be a regular jockey, he rode in the Jumbo Stakes at Muttaburra, Koorooinya and Tower Hill.
Later Tom was President of the Muttaburra Club and had several turns as President of the Oakley amateur Picnic Race Club (Koorooinya) which was a yearly event that was never missed.
At the time of his death, Tom was the Treasurer of the Oakley amateur Picnic Race Club, and also ran the T.A.B. which the younger members of the crowd loved to patronise, almost as much to back-chat with Tom as to have a win on the race.
He was always available to help anyone in trouble. He could fix almost anything and many and varied were the travellers on the Prairie-Muttaburra Road who called at Birricannia with car trouble, sometimes quite major trouble, and been made roadworthy again.
Tom had a very agile mind, a keen sense of humour at all times and was always fun to be with.
He is deeply mourned by his wife, Wendy, daughter, Katherine and her family, and his sons, Peter and John, sisters Anne Cullinan, Margaret Colreavy and Mary Brook, brother, Rob, and their families, father, Tom, and extended family members.
May he rest in peace.

Source: Family Eulogy