Biography

Arthur Frederick Roach  (1905 - 1978) was born in Addleston, England. He came to Australia as a teenage boy, alone, under the 'Big Brotherhood' scheme, and went to work on several outback properties.

He joined the Army Medical Corps in New South Wales at the outbreak of World War II. He was  a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese, and worked on the dreaded Burma Railway until the end of the war. He survived and returned to Australia.

In March 1946 Arthur visited England and there he married Jean Maynard of Kent. In the following year they returned to South Australia; later they visited and eventually settled in Tasmania in 1952.

Arthur was employed as catering manager at a Commonwealth Hostel at Mowbray. Later he became chief steward at the Northern Club, and for a time he worked at The Cleavers hardware store at the south-west corner of Brisbane and Charles streets.

He was a Freemason for many years and became a member of the Board of Management of the Fred French Nursing Home in 1963.

In 1975, as a member of the Lawrie Abra Memorial Lodge, he was awarded the Masonic 'Order of Merit'.

He was a member of the Vestry of St. Paul's Church, also All Saints' Church, Exeter, and Holy Trinity Church, Launceston. From 1960 until his death in 1978, he was a regular attender at St. John's Church, Launceston.

Arthur Roach died in Launceston on 9^th August 1978 aged 73 years.

Mrs Roach gave a pair of brass vases to St. John's Church for use in the chapel. The inscription on one of them reads:
A.M.D.G.
IN MEMORY OF
ARTHUR FREDERICK ROACH

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