Ike

Walking around Wynnum recently I bumped into Ike. Ike Thomlinson is a Wynnum institution, so I had a chat with him about life, the universe and everything. Although he has called Wynnum his home for many a year, he’s not originally from these parts. In fact he was born in Whitehaven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehaven) in the Lake District (note: no ‘s’ on the end of the word ‘lake’) 89 years ago.

What you may not know is that Ike fought in the Second World War and was one of the troops who landed on the beaches on D-Day. As a hydraulics engineer in the Sappers Ike drove the bulldozers on the beaches and put up the Bailey Bridges. Later in the war he looked after POWs.

For the past goodness knows how many years (we didn’t ask) he has been dressing up in his gear to keep the citizens of Wynnum entertained, and in fact for a while he used to entertain sick people (maybe at a hospital?) with a bit of a song and a dance.

Before we parted company Ike let me know that – at the tender age of 89 – he is looking for some female company. We can pass on all messages…

*editor’s note – when we interviewed Ike, we were under the mistaken impression (perhaps we misheard) that Ike’s name was Tom – maybe as his surname is Thomlinson – so we have corrected his name in this piece – the beauty of online! Thanks to Tom (!) at Wynnum Market for the heads up. Here’s an article on Ike from the Wynnum Herald back in 2008:

http://wynnum-herald.whereilive.com.au/news/story/scooter-man-housebound/