Hugh George Griffin

John Joseph Griffin: the Life and Times of an Irish Emigrant Hugh George Griffin

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many millions of Irish people left their homeland in search of a better life overseas. This is the story of one emigrant, John Joseph "Jack" Griffin who, in the year 1900, left his job as a shop assistant in Co. Kerry and embarked on a two-month journey by sea to the other side of the world. He settled in Western Australia and having worked as a drover for a number of years finally became the owner of a 200,000 acre sheep station. In 1909 he married Mary Glass, an immigrant from Northern Ireland. Following the untimely death of his wife he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and fought in the battlefields of France during World War I. He was wounded in action in 1916 and returned to Western Australia where he lived until his death in 1926. This book describes Jack's life in the context of the historical events of the period.