Ninki Wynne was a remarkable woman who had a remarkable life. The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), to its credit, had a program documenting the life stories of World War II service people who made it through to their later years. Our soldiers, sailors and airmen all had a tale or two to tell. This obituary is a compilation of information from the DVA and family history sources.
Marguerite Wynne (nee Saunders) was born in Hobart in 1922. Marguerite was always known as "Ninki". When she was young, she had very dark hair, and her father started calling her " Inky Ninki". Going to school her cousins (including my father) were calling her Ninki, then her teachers picked up on the name, and amusingly the moniker stuck with her.
Ninki's first job out of school was as a draughtsperson. On reaching age 20, she enlisted for war service in the Australian Women's Army Services (AWAS). The Pacific War was at its height. Ninki was initially attached to the AWAS barracks in Hobart at "Lindfield" in Davey Street. In a short time she was promoted to corporal and, after an NCO course in Sydney, she became a sergeant.
After a posting in Melbourne, she returned to Hobart to be sergeant-in-charge at AWAS HQ. Ninki spent nearly three years with AWAS and was voluntarily discharged in July 1945. Ninki valued the camaraderie while serving, and she advised aspiring, young defence services personnel to be loyal, honest and always helpful.
During the war Ninki married Greg Tomlinson and they went on to raise three children, living first in Hobart and then in Perth, WA. Greg had an interesting service career as well, being in three air forces: those of Australia, Canada and Britain. After training with the RCAF and the RAF, he qualified as an "air observer" reaching the rank of flight lieutenant. The critical part of Greg's flying career was as a navigator, flying low-level missions over the North Atlantic. The planes were guarding the shipping convoys that were taking vital materials and men from North America, to England, which at that time was under siege by the Germans.
Greg sadly passed away in 1992. Ninki married a second time to Ken Wynne who was a Royal Marine during World War II and later came to Tasmania where he was general manager of the Cadbury chocolate factory at Claremont.
In a remarkable set of parallel connections, Ken was serving on RN corvettes in the Mediterranean on convoy duty at the same time as Greg was flying over the U-boat-invested waters of the Atlantic.
Ninki had a wonderfully wide view of the world. She kept herself informed by reading her daily Mercury cover-to-cover, and watching ABC TV's nightly news. You could talk to her on any subject: from the Ukraine war, to political "goings-on" in Tasmania.
Ninki was spritely even in her later years. Perhaps this was thanks to her younger days when she enjoyed sailing and mountain climbing. Gardening became a passion as well. Ninki attributed her longevity to the “five-star" care she got at May Shaw Nursing Home in sunny Swansea. If only we all had a disposition as sunny as Ninki's.
This obituary was compiled jointly with Senator Matt Keogh, the Commonwealth Minister for Veterans Affairs.
David Hurburgh is Ninki Wynne's great nephew. He is a geologist, writer and chartered banker. He graduated from the University of Tasmania majoring in geology and geomorphology, and has worked as an exploration geologist for a range of commodities, including uranium and diamonds, in a range of terranes, from equatorial Africa to the Canadian sub-Arctic. More recently, he has worked for the Tasmanian Government on the roll-out of the natural gas network.
His interests involve promoting the use of bioenergy. As an earth scientist who often dwells on the concept of "deep time", David Hurburgh finds Tasmania, with its pedigree as a fragment of Gondwana, a constant reminder of how dynamic a planet we live on.
