John Pembroke was born in Biggenden in Queensland on the 19^th of October, 1930. He was the second of five children. John grew up on a dairy farm at Lakeside. Times were tough and the depression impacted heavily on the family income. John’s father often worked away on the railways during the week, coming home to work on the farm on the weekends. This meant that John and his siblings had to help with the chores from a very early age. At three he was bringing in the cows and helping with the milking.

By the time John was ten, the family had lost the farm so they moved to Nanango where his father found work at the local sawmill. His mother was a nurse and she found employment at the local cottage hospital. John’s family lived there for the next ten years. John attended Nudgee College as a boarder during this period. In 1950 his family moved to Brisbane where they purchased a home at Bardon. John’s father found employment at the Milton XXXX Brewery.

On completion of his Junior year at school, John was accepted as a Cadet in the Queensland Police Force. He worked in the MO section of the CIB in Brisbane for ten years dealing with administrative and investigation duties. He was married in 1950 and subsequently had three children over the next six years.

On 9^th March 1958 John joined the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary where he was posted to Lae. His family joined him in New Guinea some months later. In 1958 John prepared a coronial Enquiry into an air crash of a Lockheed Hudson in Lae which killed the three occupants.

In 1959, John was posted to Wau where he spent several years as Officer In Charge. Life as a police officer in a small town was not just about law and order, it was many other roles as well. Wau boasted a miniature fire engine which was euphemistically known by all as “Little TOOT”. “Big Toot”, the larger version was based in Lae. Little Toot proved its worth when John had to deal with a second air crash in 1960. This time it was an RAAF DC3 with ten personnel on board. Thankfully there was no loss of life though there were some serious injuries. Wau airstrip is only a small strip with hills at the bottom and a slight incline to the top where the terminal is situated. The DC3 pilot overshot his approach, realised that he wouldn’t stop in time and tried to take off for a second attempt not realising that there was an incline. He clipped the ground with a wing as he attempted to lift off and the plane flipped over and slid across the runway to the edge of the strip where it burst into flames. John was on the scene in minutes and had to deal with the evacuation of the injured whilst controlling the fire and making sure it didn’t spread to the neighbouring homes on the side of the strip. He then had to preserve the scene against the souvenir hunters and prepare a coronial enquiry. In February 1961 John received a letter of commendation from the Air Vice Marshall, Air Officer Commanding RAAF, Headquarters at Penrith in NSW for his prompt and intelligent action taken when dealing with this incident. John also was commended by the Administrator, Sir Donald Cleland for his conduct.

In 1962 John was posted back to Lae where at various times he held the positions of OIC Investigations, OIC Lae and Morobe District Inspector. By this time John was a solo parent raising three children. His youngest sister, Mary, volunteered to come to PGN to help out. Coincidentally after her arrival Fred Mercer and his two daughters, Vicky and Kim, became frequent visitors to the Pembroke establishment. It was while he was based in Lae that John acquired the nickname of the XXXX man. His friends thought he looked like the man in the Fourex logo. The resemblance was quite striking and in later years this was reinforced by his eldest granddaughter who at the age of one saw the logo one day and kept insisting it was Grandad.

In 1966 John was posted to Mount Hagen as District Inspector/OIC. Vern McNeil was Superintendent there at the time. John’s duties included the investigation of a number of murders and other serious crimes – the Highlanders being a fairly volatile people.

In 1968 he was posted to Bomana Training Centre as Commanding Officer. Whilst at Bomana there was a passing out parade for four squads on 18^th October of 1968. Assistant Commissioner Brian Holloway inspected the parade at the Police Training Depot and thanked Inspector Pembroke and his staff for their fine efforts in bringing the squads to the standard which they had attained. During the course of the parade, the Assistant Commissioner presented a Certificate of Merit to Constable Gande of the mobile unit. Inspector Pembroke read the citation for Constable Gande’s Certificate of Merit. This was the second commendation for bravery that Constable Gande had been awarded.

From there he was posted to Wewak, back to Lae, on to Mendi, a stint in Madang and finally back to Mount Hagen where he served out the remainder of his time in the Territory. Duties at this time included Outstation Inspections, Administrative duties and the oversight, direction and control of officers and other staff members. This entailed Public Relations, Management of Staff and formulating local policy within the bounds of general policy to overcome problems that were constantly arising.In February 1974 John returned to Australia settling in Brisbane where he joined the Public Service working in the Lands Department and acting as chauffer for the Surveyor General. During this time John started studying holistic medicines. In 1980 John was awarded the qualification of Practitioner Diploma for Traditional and Modern Chinese Acupuncture. In 1982 he was awarded a Bachelor of Acupuncture. In 1984 he received a Graduate Diploma of Chinese Herbalism. He also received certificates for Self-Healing Workshops, Reconnective Healing Levels I, II and III and Living Dao Energy Mastery. He also studied Reiki and Magnetic Healing.John was a very hands-on grandfather, babysitting his grandchildren from when they were very young. The only stipulation he made was that the nappies had to be folded for a quick change. This was in the days before disposables! The children spent school holidays with him regularly. Grandson Alastair came to live with John in 1995 to finish his schooling in Brisbane. Granddaughter Emily also lived with him for a time after she finished school.

In January 2000 John lost his son, Philip, to cancer. John’s health started to deteriorate after this and he is currently residing in a nursing home at Bethania. Daughters Sharon and Jeanette both live in Brisbane as do granddaughters Deanna, Emily and Susie. Grandson Alastair works away and is constantly on the move. Deanna has given John two delightful little great grandsons Jack and Thomas.