John “Skip” Bailey

Epilogue

The Farmer/Bailey family left their mark on West Australia’s history from the foundation of the Swan River colony to the present day.

Two of Skip’s children are still living, Jill and Jacqueline. Jill left Australia by ship in 1963 and ended up in Miami, Florida. U.S.A. Walter E. Mueller, Skip’s brother-in-law secured Jill a flight to Norfolk, Virginia and she met up with some family friends of Rusty and they eventually secured her a job working in the RAAF Air Attache Office in Washington D.C. until 1966.

Jill is now Jill Gomez and is living in Virginia, America (having met and married an American) Felix Richard Gomez on 8th July 1966. They had six children Anthony Ricardo, Elizabeth Marguerita, Nigel, John Farmer Inkpen, Theresa Annette and Jude Thadeus.

Jacqueline married Robert Winston Scotney, a farmer’s son, on 10th September 1965 in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Perth. They had four children, Emma, John, Nicholas (Nick) and Anna. John and Nick are “on the land” as successful farmers.

The legacy that Skip Bailey left lives on in his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He may only have been one of the many who served his country in stopping the Japanese invasion of Australia in World War 2 but he was to make the supreme sacrifice under the most brutal of circumstances.

He is remembered along with more than 102,000 Australians who died during or as a result of serving their country in conflicts since 1885. Their names are inscribed in bronze in the Hall of Honour of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

He will also be remembered as a loving father of my cousins Jill, Tony, Jacquie and John, and husband of my beloved Auntie Marj.