"ARDON" SERVICED FLATS
83 LEICHHARDT ST., SPRING HILL
BRISBANE, QLD
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII

"Ardon" serviced flats at 83 Leichhardt Street, Spring Hill in Brisbane were used by American military personnel as their quarters during WWII. One of those was Chief Petty Officer William Gerald Jerow, US Navy, who worked in General Douglas MacArthur's General Headquarters Southwest Pacific Area (GHQ SWPA) in the AMP building on the corner of Queen and Edward Streets, a ten minute downhill walk from "Ardon" flats.

"Ardon" Guest House opened in about 1940 containing 32 guest rooms, with 13 rooms on the ground floor together with a kitchen and lounge and 14 rooms upstairs and 5 rooms on a lower street level where the laundry was also located. Guests at "Ardon" received a morning tray of tea and toast. Miss Cahill was the onsite manager.

Photo:- via William Jerow Jr.

Chief Petty Officer William Gerald Jerow in January 1944 in front of "Ardon"

Chief Petty Officer William Gerald Jerow, met Betty Ezzy (see photo below) when he got off the train in Newcastle on his way from Melbourne to Brisbane in July 1942. Betty followed William to Brisbane and lived with her aunt and continued to date William Jerow.

Betty Ezzy in Brisbane during WWII

Photo:- The Truth Sunday 13 October 1940

The front entrance of "Ardon"

Photo:- The Truth Sunday 13 October 1940

One of the rooms in "Ardon"

One of the features of the serviced rooms in "Ardon" was the fact that they were sound proof due to the internal brick walls.

Two 17 year old youths, Stephen Eugene Clarke and Neville Newbury appeared in the Police Court on Saturday 29 July 1944 in front of Stipendiary Magistrate W. P. Wilson charged with stealing from the rooms of three American officers, James Wylie Christie and Donald Grant Marsh at the Canberra Hotel and Edwin Brawn at Arden Guest House. Their loot included a couple of fully loaded pistols. They were both sent to gaol for two months. Both had a long list of burglary convictions and both were escapees from the Gosford Farm Home for delinquent boys.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank William Jerow, son of Chief Petty Officer William Gerald Jerow for his assistance with this web page.

I would also like to thank Jenny Wood for her assistance with this web page.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 21 January 2022

This page last updated 22 January 2022