For long-time Sunshine residents, there’s only one Big Jim.
Thomas James Cannon was the third-born child of Irish pioneers Jane and Thomas Cannon, who were escaping famine back home.
The Cannons were one of the first families in the area, and bought number 3 Hertford Road.
They had their six children there, Michael, Ethel, Kath, Pat, Monica and of course ‘Big Jim’, named after his father, who lived there right up until three months before his death.
In his eulogy, Jim’s nephew, Timothy Wickham, said Jim and his siblings were brought up in testing times. Thomas Cannon had returned from WWI suffering from the affects of mustard gas and died shortly afterwards.
This left Jane to raise their five young children during The Great Depression, as the years between the two world wars became known. She fought hard for a widow’s pension, and there were times when the children had next to nothing to eat.
“Life was turned upside down for the family [after Thomas’ death], and they would later refer to these years as the starvation years,” Mr Wickham said in his eulogy. “This was no exaggeration. Jim would recall one night getting home from school to find that the only edible thing in the house was an onion.”
But Jane Cannon knew the importance of a good education and hard work, an attitude that was complemented by Jim’s natural aptitude for study.
He attended Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception primary school and then Christian Brothers Technical College in Abbotsford, where he developed a keen interest for “all matter technical”. He became an engineer and had a workshop in McIntyre Road.
Big Jim died on November 5, aged 90. Brimbank council observed one minute’s silence in his honour at last Tuesday’s meeting.
