from the paper today in sydney -

With a 'God bless' she knew her sweetheart was alive
By Alan Ramsey August 10, 2005, sydney morning herald

JEAN Whyte, from Leura, married her soldier sweetheart, a private, five weeks before he sailed to Singapore, eventually to become a prisoner of war of the Japanese. That was 64 years ago. She would sit at night in the Blue Mountains with her short-wave radio, bought with wedding money, and search the airwaves for any news of him. He would sit in Changi prison and write poetry for her. Four years, six months and two weeks would pass before they held each other again, on September 22, 1945. That was the day he arrived home by flying boat at Rose Bay. A newspaper photo of the pair embracing is the centrepiece of Jean's album of memories. He is wearing the jumper she knitted when they thought he was being sent to the Middle East. He kept it in his kitbag all the years he was a POW, vowing to survive to wear it the day he returned home to his young bride.

David Griffin, also from Leura, married Jean on Saturday, March 8, 1941. He was 25. She was 22. He had enlisted, at his third try, in the AIF's new 8th Division 24 hours earlier. The army put him in a unit that looked after ambulances. The convoy of ships that took him overseas, and into captivity 11 months later, sailed from Sydney Harbour on April 11, 1941 - Good Friday. He died on March 25 last year, aged 88.

Two years before his death, Griffin published a book of poems, Changi Days, under the dedication: "To Jean, my wife of over 60 years who saw me go, waited long years for my return and was there when I came back." She is now 86 and still drives her ride-on mower, his 80th birthday gift, at their property near Mittagong.

Theirs is a great love story.

In 1944 Japanese headquarters in Singapore sent a motorcycle rider to Changi with a radio message which had been monitored overnight. It was addressed: "NX69235, Sgt (Charles) David Griffin, 2/3 motor ambulance convoy. From wife. Message: 'Dearest David. Well, happy. Hope together soon. July radio received. Family, aunts, daddy, Ted and Chris send greetings. Love kisses sweetheart. Jeannie.' "

She recalls: "I'd got this radio message which was picked up by a woman on short-wave in Western Australia, and she sent it on to me. It was very stilted, from the Japanese, saying David was well, which he didn't even know had been sent. I replied, of course, and the Japanese picked it up in Singapore and sent it out by motorbike to the jail, because they were so thrilled I'd responded to their message."

It was the only radio message that got through to David Griffin in 3½ years of captivity. His wife got three of his. One of these, sent 61 years ago tomorrow, read: "Dearest Jeannie. Very well and cheerful. Still in [prison] library [at Changi]. My thoughts are flying to our reunion. David. 11 Aug, '44."

What Jean remembers with the greatest joy is the day early in 1944, before the radio message was picked up in Western Australia, that she got a handwritten postcard from Changi prison. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942 and the surrender of all British and Allied forces, including 23,000 Australians, David Griffin had been posted "missing, believed a POW". It was another nine months before she officially learnt he was alive. The postcard came 15 months later.

"Daddy and I were eating our lunch at home in Leura and I could hear postie blowing his whistle. I said, 'I think he must have something,' so I ran down to the gate and there was postie sitting on his horse, holding up this card. He had a lot of cards, and mine was from David saying 'God bless'. The Japanese allowed a maximum 30 words. I got four of David's cards all together, I think, and I used to carry them with me. Near the end of the war somebody pinched my wallet, so they were gone."

Griffin would become Sydney's lord mayor years later and be knighted by the NSW Askin government. His "Jeannie" was with him in their sunroom the morning he had a stroke 17 months ago. He died without regaining consciousness.