J. B. Webb
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James Bawtree (Jim) Webb,
Family influences
His parents were Francis (Frank) and Gwendolyn Webb, who also had two daughters, Nancy, the older, and Elizabeth, the younger. From his mother's side of the family Webb drew a strong Wesleyan Methodist background. This contributed a major social justice streak to Webb's origins and to his lifelong views on politics and society. From his mother and aunt he gained a love of language, enquiry and learning; and from his father extraordinary social and organisational skills. From 1929 to 1951 Webb lived at Kinkora Road, Hawthorn and attended the Auburn Methodist Church. From 1935 til 1942 he was a student at Spring Road Primary and Central Schools in Malvern. From 1943 to 1946 Webb was a high school student at Melbourne Boys' High School.
Activism
By 1946 Webb was organiser of the
Personal life
Webb wed Lesley Merele Hayes in 1956, which union lasted until 1979. In 1958 his first child, Richard James Bawtree Webb was born. By 1960 another son, Geoffrey Ian, arrived. Catherine Dilys, the first daughter, was born in 1964. Webb helped Merele to establish Nillumbik Bushscape (a landscaping business) in 1976, and she still runs it. That same year, Webb was hospitalised, as he suffered a long period of serious depression culminating in hospitalisation for bipolar disorder. This undermined his self–confidence, and he largely withdrew from public life from then on. Even so, he was manager for the Nursing Mothers Association from 1977 to 1978. In 1984 Webb married Marie Scott, and the next year he was a consultant for the Australian Schizophrenia Association. In the 1990s he was chair, then member of the Corinella Park Committee. But in 1997, Webb was hospitalised with acute goitre, and spent 10 days in intensive care, the start of twelve years of debilitating ill–health. Despite this, in 2009 he celebrated his 80th Birthday and 25th Wedding anniversary, and on 20 July 2009, Webb died peacefully in his sleep.
The beneficiaries of volunteerism
Webb always maintained that the volunteers who went to Asia, Africa and the Pacific contributed far more to Australian society than they did to their host countries.[1]
Awards
References
- ISBN 9780959963618.