A man like JacK

Jack Willmott is 97 and he has a full dance card. No-one knows how much he’s raised but he’s sold thousands of raffle tickets, Anzac badges, poppies for Remembrance Day and bulbs for the local daffodil festival, with a smile for all.

They call him a local legend. Everyone in town knows him – whether long time locals or the new wave of “tree changers” from the inner city - and no one has a bad word to say about him. He’s a bit of a charmer and he’s adored and admired by young and old alike.

This is a story of one man and one country community – a gentle social history with a wide supporting cast across generations and all levels of society.  He is not the only one of his kind but he is emblematic of a generation that is rapidly passing.

Jack fought for his country in World War Two on the Kokoda Track and in lesser known battles elsewhere in what is now Papua New Guinea.  He survived to come home, marry his childhood sweetheart, start a family and run his own butcher shop in his home town for 50 years. 

His life has not been without heartache, challenges or ill health but he’s not the type to ever give up. He had open heart surgery for the first time in 1979. The two others operated on that day are long gone. All his friends his age have died, he lost his beloved wife and only son, but he is still going, fortified by the “just get on with it” philosophy of his generation and energy levels that defy the decades. Even his daughters have to make an appointment to claim a slot in his busy schedule.

This observational documentary is a reflection on the experience of those like Jack who lived through almost all of the 20th century, when two world wars and The Great Depression changed the world and electricity, the motor vehicle and the telephone transformed their lives. That was before plastic and the economic boom of the 1950s, before man conquered the moon, women’s liberation upended the social order, supermarkets revolutionised the way we shopped and TV took over our lounge rooms. They saw in a new millennium and have adapted to a globalised world with mobile phones and even more mobile populations, ubiquitous international travel and the continuing revolution that is the world wide web. 

Ordinary life is rendered marvellous or extraordinary in hindsight. The story of a man like Jack offers a first person insight into the common man’s experience of life that will be lost to history unless their recollections and experiences are captured. Otherwise, what will we have lost when they are all gone? They don’t make them like Jack any more.

Rest in peace Jack

Sadly we lost Jack's famous smile on June 8, 2017, a week after his 97th birthday. 
It has been a great privilege to spend so much time with Jack.
His memory lives on in so many hearts and I hope through the
reminders on this page of his contribution to the town he loved.
The final film remains a work in progress in what will be an enduring tribute to Jack
and the community in his beloved home town, Kyneton.

John William Willmott

1/06/1920 - 8/06/2017