Anne Spence remembers going to South Fremantle football matches with John Curtin and her father:
'My earliest memories of John Curtin were with my father. My father was also a great Labor member and he was very close to John Curtin during his election in Fremantle. Also I can remember John Curtin, he was a great football fan of South Fremantle and every Saturday we'd go to the football and we'd stand together, my father, John Curtin and myself. He was always a very quietly spoken man. I could remember him wearing the glasses and long over coat and a hat pulled firmly down over his face and I don't think he really wanted people to know how hard he was barracking or who he was at the time. But he was a very well-spoken and well-mannered gentleman. They would be my earliest memories.
During the football I think my main job of being there was to keep an eye on my father who was a very loud barracker but Mr Curtin never raised his voice, he just sort of had that look on his face that was determined that they'd like them to win but he never really made a great deal of it. But I managed to keep the peace as much as possible.'
Excerpt
from:
JCPML. Records of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Interview
of Mrs Anne Spence, 24 August 1997. JCPML00228/1
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