Peter Hume
Department:
Human Resources Flight Operations
Country/State:
Australia/NSW
Home City:
Sydney
Date of Passing:
28/09/2023
●️ PETER'S BIOGRAPHY —
Born in Newcastle on Tyne, Northumberland, England to Fred and Jean Hume.
Sometime in the 1930s several years before his marriage to Jean in 1936, Fred changed his surname by one letter, from Humm to Hume. The former name probably sounded too Germanic during those difficult political times.
Fred emigrated to Australia first before Jean and Peter, arriving on February 15, 1949 on the SS 'Orion' to join the UK company of Reckitt and Coleman's Sydney office as a Salesman. After Fred had established a home, Jean and Peter emigrated to Australia on the SS 'Orentes' arriving in Sydney on November 18, 1949, Peter was then 9 years 2 months old.
I do not know the name of the primary school Peter attended.
Peter graduated from 'Shore' High School -- North Sydney Church of England Grammar School (1953-1958.)
The government's Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme was in place when Peter applied for and was granted a university scholarship in 1958.
His parents' wishes were for Peter to become a doctor. His father Fred had since risen up the ranks to become the Managing Director of Reckitt & Coleman, retailers of pharmaceutical products. Through his work, Fred had affiliations with doctors and had always admired the medical profession, which was not achievable for him due to the war era's many personal limitations, but he encouraged Peter to follow that occupational line.
Peter attended Sydney University Faculty of Medicine from 1959 - 1961
Changed to Faculty of Science in 1962
Changed to Faculty of Arts in 1966
Peter decided university did not really interest him and for a short time worked in a stockbroking firm before joining Qantas's Sydney admin office on 25 January 1965. He wanted to gain a view of what an airline pilot's life would be like. He decided that if he liked the pilot's lifestyle, he would pursue airline flying as a full-time career. Luckily, he decided against an airline pilot career, as in 1980 he lost his Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) on the medical grounds of raised blood pressure. In those days the Dept. of Aviation as it was called back then, would not accept using medication to control blood pressure, I don't know what the current situation is for pilots retaining their licence with that medical problem nowadays.
He began learning to fly with The Royal Aero Club (RAC) at Bankstown airport at the end of April 1963 and gained his CPL in early August 1968, followed by gaining his Flight Instructor rating with the same club some short 2½ months later. The RAC loaned him to Camden Aero Club as a weekend Flying Instructor, which then became a permanent arrangement. I first met Peter at Camden Aero Club whilst I was a student pilot there. Looking back through his logbook it was 16 Oct 1966 when we first flew together, on our club's flying competition day. Peter finished off my private pilot training.
(My research discovered The Royal Aero Club at Bankstown went into receivership in the 1990s and was resurrected and re-established by enthusiasts in 2023. I cannot find any info on Camden Aero Club, but I'm fairly sure it stayed operational longer than the Royal did before its resurrection.)
He obtained a Personnel Administration Certificate in 1971 which was useful in his job with Qantas. The company also sent Peter to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing for short working trips at various times, an experience he enjoyed.
September 1968 Peter applied to become a Justice of the Peace in NSW which was granted on 17 Feb 1969, this was useful in his Qantas job.
In July 1974 Peter registered the business name of 'Jazz Down Under' for the forthcoming publication of his jazz magazine. The first bi-monthly magazine was published in September / October 1974, and Peter asked me to design the typeface style of JDU's name for the first edition, which Horst then changed to a bolder style for the magazine. There were 24 editions in total, with the last magazine being published in July / August 1978.
In October 1976 J.D.U.'s Associate Editor Jim Cattlin left for the USA where he lived for about 30 years before returning to Australia. The publication primarily ceased due to Horst Liepolt, the major Associate Editor and Advertising Manager emigrating to USA (he died Jan 2019.)
With Peter's flying cessation, he turned to his other interests. He was an avid reader of aviation, ships, trains, war history or stories, and British comedy such as 'The Goons' 'Monty Python' etc. He was musically talented and learned to play the tenor saxophone in earlier years, this ceased when the instrument was later stolen (from his mother's downstairs home unit laundry) and was never replaced.
He enjoyed listening to his ever-growing jazz record collection. This record collection he eventually replaced with CD's, by him selling many of his *LP (Long Playing) records in Japan. The Japanese were avid collectors of Western jazz records, the money from these LP record sales actually paid for most of our holiday accommodation and travels within Tokyo and other tourist locations there. *LP as distinct from Singles records.
We also accumulated a number of stray cats over 30 years, 11 in total, the first one was a pregnant tabby we named 'Pussy', not a particularly imaginative name.
In 1994 we gave a home to our first stray geriatric dog 'Blackboy' an almost fur-less Labrador who got along fine with the 6 cats we had at that time. He lived for 3 years, as did our next 2 older dogs, all succumbed to cancer or stroke. We had 5 dogs in total over 20 years, their time with us overlapped with some of the cats.
Peter also enjoyed reading and researching jazz and photocopying jazz photos and then spent a considerable amount of time putting together several very professional-looking photo albums of jazz artists from the information he had collected.
Not being computer literate, Peter used a typewriter to write any of his own jazz commentary and the copied photos, jazz info and commentary were subsequently assembled into albums as a cut-and-paste job. An amazing job well done!
We moved from Camden on the outskirts of Sydney to Oxenford in Queensland in December 2005. Our last cat 'Jasmine' a 20-year-old, very *conveniently died a week before our move, so now only our last 2 dogs remained which we flew up to meet us here in the Sunshine State. (*I say 'conveniently' only in that this new house's layout was less cat-practical for an aged cat)
Here in Qld. Peter went to the trouble of actually re-doing his first jazz photo albums completed in Camden because he felt he could have done a better job. He was a stickler for perfection.
Peter still loved his jazz but collected CDs much less frequently now than he had in Sydney. For some strange reason I could not fathom, he did not listen much to his accumulated jazz music here, seemingly more interested in just collecting more CDs. His focus of interests had changed more to reading his books, the current newspaper and watching his DVD movies.
Peter was also an avid cricket and tennis fan and was glued to the TV for all test and regular cricket, as well as the tennis matches, and sometimes listening to the radio commentary as well as watching the TV match. He also enjoyed watching football, I think it was soccer, but I'm not exactly sure, as I'm not a sporting-oriented person.
I shall always remember his obsession with the weather forecast, both on the radio & on TV, and he did not want any interruptions when it was being aired.
Peter had always enjoyed driving, he had a white MGB hard-top sports car he loved when I first met him, which was followed by other more roomy vehicles in later years.
Whilst still living in Sydney, we sometimes would go on short countryside touring journeys with our dogs and enjoy a coffee at a local cafe, or we'd simply go and sit in a park with the dogs and our packed lunch, whilst he read a book, and I did some pencil sketching.
Once he reached his 80's he no longer enjoyed driving, so the 25-minute drive from home to the Runaway Bay shopping centre, or to go and check on my mother's home unit there, was edging towards his driving limit. Fortunately, we have 2 nearby local shopping centres here, one being a 4-minute drive and the larger one about 12-15 mins. away for everyday shopping, banking and Peter's love for cafe-style 'flat white' coffee. ️
Since our days in Camden Peter managed his prostate cancer without surgery which he did not want, as it was a tricky operation and there was a possibility if it did not go as planned, it could leave him needing a bladder bag for the remainder of his life. He had constant check-ups with his specialist and only started hormone treatment when his PSA readings increased. He had never wanted chemo or radiation therapy either, having seen how his friends had faired with that style of medical care.
It was in May/June 2023 that he noticed an increasing abdominal uncomfortableness and he was having difficulties at times in remaining upright and not falling. Hospitalized in July after a fall, and tests confirmed the cancer had spread into his lymph nodes and beyond. His hospital doctor recommended going into a nursing home and not going home. The doctor's prognosis was 3 to 6 months left to live, which turned out to be accurate.
I did not have a funeral for Peter but had him cremated and his ashes are here at home with me, where I can talk to Peter daily.
On my death, Peter will be buried in my grave in Toowoomba, in a plot bought for me by my sister, along with the ashes of our cremated and loved pets...... Our little 'family' will be back together again!