Obituary: Jim Kingston OAM

April 29, 2022

A funeral will be held next week for former Murgon RSL Sub-Branch president Jim Kingston OAM who died on April 26.

The service will be held from 10:00am next Thursday (May 5) at the South Burnett Crematorium in Pioneer Avenue, Kingaroy.

Jim was born in Kingaroy on January 30, 1935, and lived in the town until 1957 when he moved to Murgon.

By profession, Jim was a barber but he was more commonly known for his many voluntary community roles with service and sporting clubs and Murgon RSL over a period spanning more than 60 years.

Jim’s community service began when he joined the Murgon Apex Club in 1957 as a 22-year-old, where he quickly took an active role in its annual fundraising drives for charity.

During his 18 years with Apex he raised funds for Cerebral Palsy, Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Red Cross Blood Bank.

He also oversaw the operations of the Blood Bank in Murgon for 10 years, was Murgon Apex Club president for a year, and was awarded life membership of the group when he reached Apex’s compulsory retirement age of 40 in 1975.

He then went on to run the annual appeal for the Spastic Centre in Murgon for six years, and helped organise monthly community dances at Redgate and Cloyna.

Jim was also an active member of the Murgon Mustangs Rugby League Club, serving as its chairman for four years; and was a founding president of the Murgon Bowls Club, going on to serve on that club’s committee for 12 years as well as president of the South Burnett Bowls Clubs Past Presidents’ Association, games director, and then secretary, until 2013.

However, his greatest individual achievements were probably in his roles with the National Servicemen’s Association of Australia and the RSL of Australia.

Jim was called up for compulsory National Service on April 26, 1954, and completed his training at the Greenbank Army Camp, where he graduated as a private.

He joined the National Servicemen’s Association (NSA) in 1994, and when a Sub-Branch of the NSA was established in the South Burnett two years later, became a founding member.

After this he was Honorary Treasurer of the Sub-Branch for 16 years, and remained a very active member of the association until recent years, helping to plan and organise six members’ reunions.

Jim was also the inaugural treasurer for the Australian National Servicemen’s Association (ANSA) when that organisation started at Coffs Harbour in 2000.

He was the South Burnett Branch’s representative at many ANSA State conferences over the years, and was the driving force behind the concept and construction of the National Servicemen’s Memorial erected in the grounds of the Murgon RSL Sub Branch.

Jim joined the Murgon RSL Sub-Branch in 1996, and went on to serve for six years as vice-president and a further two years as its president.

In 1999, he was appointed chairman of the Homes Committee and held this position for 17 years until 2016, when he resigned due to failing health.

During this period he successfully campaigned to have four villas constructed to house returned service personnel, and he remained Patron of the Murgon RSL Sub-Branch until his death.

In 2014 – as president of Murgon RSL – Jim was part of a delegation invited to Holland to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the death of Murgon-born Flight Sergeant Patrick Tiernan and his air crew, whose plane was shot down over the Dutch village of Dodewaard during WWII.

Tiernan and his crew mates were buried by local residents who have tended their graves ever since.

Later the same year Jim was also part of a group that oversaw the repatriation of a 25 pounder artillery pierce that had been removed from Lions Park in Murgon and taken to the now-defunct Burnett War Museum in Kingaroy.

The gun was welcomed back to Murgon with a parade along Lamb Street and now sits proudly bolted to a concrete platform outside the Murgon Services Club.

Jim was awarded the National Service Medal and the Australian Defence Medal, and went on to be awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2018 Australia Day Honours.

He is survived by his wife Evelyn and children Tanya, Vicki, Howard and Bradley.

  Murgon