Sydney Harold Deamer (1891-1962) was a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, an editor and soldier. The son of Adrian Milford and Rhoda (née Milford) Deamer, Sydney Deamer was born on 1 December 1891 at Avondale Square, Old Kent Road,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1912 he emigrated to Australia and in 1914 enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces in Western Australia initially serving with the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital,

Australian Army Medical Corps The Royal Australian Army Medical Corps (RAAMC) is the branch of the Australian Army responsible for providing medical care to Army personnel. The AAMC was formed in 1902 through the amalgamation of medical units of the various Australian coloni ...

as a

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and NCO at Gallipoli and later in 1916 in the Quartermaster General's branch in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. He returned to England in August 1916 and was attached to Headquarters and for a time with the Warchest Club, a residential and recreational club for troops on leave in London. In October 1917 he was sent to officer cadet training in Reading and in January 1918 commenced basic pilot training at

Shawbury Shawbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Shropshire. The village is northeast of the town of Shrewsbury, northwest of Telford and northwest of London. The village straddles the A53 between Shrewsbury and Market Dray ...

graduating in May. On completion of this training he was commissioned as a pilot officer and second lieutenant. On 30 September 1918 whilst flying over German lines he was shot in the leg by machine gun fire from the ground and invalided back to England. In early 1919 he returned to Australia "at his own expense" and resigned his commission. He had a distinguished career in civilian life as a journalist in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and Australia and as a newspaper editor for the Sydney '' Daily Telegraph'' under the new proprietor Sir Frank Packer between 1936 and 1939. In 1939 Deamer joined the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

in a public relations role. For fourteen years, Deamer wrote the much-loved Column Eight daily feature in the '' Sydney Morning Herald''. Sydney Harold Deamer died in the district of Brentford in Middlesex, England on 30 October 1962. His wife, Martha ("Dolly") Clara (née Jones), predeceased him by a year. Martha died in Sydney on 30 March 1961. He was survived by sons Tom Perry Deamer, who was a documentary film producer and principal of the alternative education ERA School in Melbourne, and Adrian Milford Deamer, who was an early editor of ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', and subsequently became legal advisor to the ''Sydney Morning Herald''.

References

External links

Australian Dictionary of Biography entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deamer, Sydney Harold Australian World War I pilots Australian aviators 1891 births 1962 deaths 20th-century Australian journalists The Sydney Morning Herald people