Raymond “Father Ray” Skehill
The seventh child of Michael and Annie Skehill [2] and a grandson of John and Mary Skehill [1], Raymond was born on 25 May 1916.
He grew up on the family property, Stirling Estate, at Piper’s Creek, seven miles out of Kyneton, and received his primary schooling from the Marist Brothers in Kyneton and his secondary education at Assumption College, Kilmore. Returning to the farm for several years, he then entered Corpus Christi College, Werribee, in March 1936 to begin his preparation for the priesthood.
He was ordained as a priest, on the day after his father Michael’s death, at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on Sunday, 25 July 1943 by his Grace the Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr. Mannix.
A short report on his ordination in ‘Mostly About People ‘from the Kyneton Guardian of 27 July was located 02/07/2016.
Fr Ray served as an assistant parish priest temporarily in Mansfield and then for three years at Newport. For the next ten years he was assistant and Administrator at West Melbourne, before being appointed as the first parish priest at St Catherine Laboure, East Moorabbin, which position he held from 1957 to 1970. He was then parish priest at All Hallows, Balwyn, for three years. During this time his heart showed signs of malfunction so he returned to the country as parish priest of Yea for the next five years. In 1979 he was appointed parish priest at St Cecilia’s in South Camberwell. In 1989, upon retirement, he was appointed Pastor Emeritus and took up residence at “Justin Villa”, a retirement home for priests in Balwyn.
Fr Ray died on 31 October 1995 in the 53rd year of his priesthood and at 80 years of age. The principal celebrant at his funeral was the Archbishop of Melbourne, The Most Rev T F Little, DD, KBE and bishops and priests of the Archdiocese (including five of his classmates) were concelebrants.
One obituary described the circumstances of his death as follows:
Father Ray had a deep, abiding love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, God’s Mother and very much his own. The oft repeated ‘thank you’, which came so easily to his lips seems to suggest the maturity of a strong man and good priest steeped in what has been called ‘The Wisdom of Accepted Tenderness”.
Last Tuesday he concelebrated Mass with his brother priests and enjoyed lunch with lifelong friends at Blackburn. Returning home along Canterbury Road he stopped at a set of red lights. Whenever he got into his beloved car, with its four new Pirelli tyres, he always recited the Hail Mary and the prayer to Our Lady of the Way.
As the lights changed, he started off, but his heart had at last worn out. He steered to the left out of the way and lent his car against a tree on the nature strip. Immediately following him was a Police car, whose officers stopped and offered what help they could. Father Ray had gone home to God.
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Vincent Thomas “Bill” Skehill [3]
The second child of Thomas and Isabel Skehill [2] and a grandson of John and Mary Skehill [1], Vincent Thomas “Bill” was born on 16 December 1914 in Kyneton.
After growing up at Pastoria Park and Yaldwyn Street and attending school in Kyneton at the Convent of Mercy and then at the Marist Brothers college, “Bill” worked for a period at the family garage and at a sports goods and radio store.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the Royal Australian Air Force and saw distinguished service over Europe with the Royal Air Force.
PHOTOGRAPH DID NOT CARRY Boeing B-17 crew of the 5th Bombardment Wing, 15th USAF, after returning to Amendola, Italy, from a daylight bombing mission over Sofia, Bulgaria, have driven over to the dispersals of No. 150 Squadron RAF to wish a crew of a Vickers Wellington Mark X good luck before they take off for a night raid on the same target. The RAF crew are, (left to right): Sergeant M Jefferson of Manchester, (wireless operator); Sergeant G Heywood of Upton-by-Chester, (rear gunner); Flight Lieutenant V T “Bill” Skehill of Kooyong, Australia, (pilot), who is shaking hands with the American crew captain, 2nd Lieutenant Walters; Flying Officer P R Jameson of Brisbane, Australia, (navigator), and Flight Sergeant E W Turner of Northfleet, Kent, (bomb aimer).
On 29 December 1944 the London Gazette promulgated the award of a Distinguished Flying Cross to Bill for service in No. 150 Squadron (RAF), the citation making reference to “Numerous attacks on targets in SICILY, ITALY, &c”. The award was promulgated in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 11 January 1945 and the insignia presented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria at Government House, Melbourne on 27 July 1949.
After returning to Australia, he lived in Melbourne (probably with his mother Sys and sisters Mena and Joan at 81 Talbot Crescent, Kooyong) and worked at Commonwealth Disposals where, it seems, he met Mary Inder whom he married at Brighton on 1 May 1948. Mary had been born in Sydney where she attended the Brigidine Convent and later moved to Melbourne where she attended the Star of the Sea.
After they married on 1 May 1948, Bill and Mary moved to Pastoria Park which Bill operated under a partnership agreement with his mother, Sys, who was entitled to life tenancy of the property under Tom Skehill’s will.
Bill was a member of the Pastoria & District Rural Fire Brigade and their meetings were sometimes held at Pastoria Park.
Towards the late 1950’s, Bill, Mary and their children, with assistance from a loan from Bill’s brother Gerald, moved to Bendigo where he ran a business slaughtering and selling chickens at retail and wholesale.
The family subsequently moved to Melbourne in early the 1960s where Bill worked for the firm of Peter Isaacson.
Bill died in 1987.
Bill and Mary had 4 children.
Information supplied by Frank White
