Reggie gave up so much to help his family out
Depression and war meant huge struggle
REGINALD John Erlich, known as Reg, was the second child and oldest son of Johan and Lily Erlich of Bergen, Queensland.
He was born at the Mothers Hospital in Toowoomba.
Reg grew up during the Great Depression and witnessed plenty of hardship in his lifetime, particularly with the World War II coming along when he was just 10 years old.
With his dad off working in the quarry, Reg taught himself the finer points of growing vegetables and helped his family by putting food on the table every day.
The family moved to Toowoomba in 1936, where he attended Toowoomba East State School.
He left school at the tender age of 13 in 1945 and lived in a boarding house in Margaret St, riding five miles to work each day in Greenwattle St.
He later found a job a bit closer to home at an egg hatchery and then later at the butter factory.
He was always clever with his hands, fashioning toys for his younger siblings from pine and other things he acquired around the place.
He never stopped making and inventing things, later progressing from wood to metal.
He would make garden ornaments reflecting his years of working around windmills and well bores.
His talent for handiwork didn’t stop there and he was always busy in his shed making things like motorised bicycles and helping other people.
The family was very close and loved playing music together. Reg was the leader and the drummer for the family band.
Reg’s younger siblings still look back fondly on their older brother and remember the sacrifices the family’s older children made in terms of both earnings and social life to ensure their younger siblings had the necessities in life.
Looking back, they wouldn’t have been surprised to end up in foster homes without his constant help.
That caring nature was something he delighted in passing on to the next generation.
Reg was survived by his siblings Richard, Esma, Donald, Gwendoline, Lilian, John, Charmaine and their families.