Updated 23 January 2023
The third Captain, and the most junior in age, was the ship's Surgeon, Wayne H Stockdale. Here is how the authors of the Souvenir Edition, 1st Sailing to Australia described him.
Captain Wayne H. Stockdale, M.C., was born near Zanesville, Ohio, on 13th September 1919, educated in public schools, attended Muskinguve (sic) College, New Concord, Ohio and received Medical Degree from the University of Louisville in 1945. Interned at Grace Hospital, Detroit Michigan. Entered Army in July 1946. Married — no children.
Captain says: "The health of the passengers has been far above the average. The main complaint has been the heat which has been hard for us to bear, especially those of us who prefer and are used to cold and snow.
"This is my first contact with the peoples of Europe. I am very impressed with the Baltic people. I am sure, if the rest of the peoples of Europe were of the same quality and character as those which are aboard this ship, the world would be a much greater place. This is my first trip across the equator and I am anticipating my first visit to a foreign country (port of Bremerhaven excluded).
"I wish to express my appreciation to the passengers for their co-operation in every respect. They have kept the ship exceptionally clean and neat. I am sure you will find Australia a hospitable place and success will be yours within a short time."
A drawing of Captain Stockdale, MD rather than MC, accompanied the written profile.
Most of Captain Stockdale's earlier and later life is summarised in an obituary which appeared in the Raleigh, North Carolina, News and Observer on 29 November 2005.
He grew up in Philo, Ohio, a village 10 miles along the Muskingum River from the city and Muskingum County seat of Zanesville. His education was as reported in the Souvenir Edition. His internship at Grace Hospital not only ensured his medical qualifications, it also led him to his wife. Rita Bernice Truesdale, who preferred to use her middle name, was a graduate of the School of Nursing in Detroit and worked as an anaesthetist at the Grace Hospital.
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Wayne H Stockdale in 1945
Source: Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH) via Newspapers.com |
His medical education appears to have been sponsored by the US Government in return for his joining the military after graduation. Having been commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Army upon graduation in June 1945 and married in March 1946, Wayne Stockdale embarked on his Army life in July that year. Children would have to wait.
We know nothing about Wayne's Army career apart from his trip to and from Australia on the Heintzelman, and his discharge in June 1948. We do know that his medical career continued, with surgical residencies at two hospital followed by his own surgical private practice in Smithfield, North Carolina, between 1952 and 1970.
He gave up his private practice to run the Emergency Department of the Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina for more than 20 years. Even after his retirement in 1990, he continued to offer his services to the Wayne Memorial Hospital as a physican's consultant.
His wife, Berenice, and he had three daughters, born between 1951 and 1955. Sadly, Berenice died in 1991 at the comparatively young age of 70, leaving him a widower for the next 14 years.
We have to hope that he told his daughters about his trip to Australia in 1947 with the first group of World War II refugees to travel there, and that now they can realise that he played a role in part of Australian history.
SOURCES
Once again I have created an Ancestry tree for Wayne Harrop Stockdale and his immediate family. You may have to be a Registered Guest at Ancestry.com to see it, though. I hope not. The sources I have used come from Ancestry and two of its affiliates, Fold3 and Newspapers.com. They can be accessed there, although the obituary is available publicly online in two places. The link to one is above while the second is here.
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