5856 Sgt 17th Infantry Bn.
Born at Stravithie Mains County Fife (his service file has St Andrews) Scotland, Presbyterian. Enlisted at Liverpool, NSW, 16 March 1916, age 27. teacher of the deaf and giving his address as the School for the Deaf, Newtown, Sydney. Nok sister, Miss Mary Orr Love, Nurses Home, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh, Scotland. Embarked at Sydney 7 October 1916 per A40 Ceramic. Serving in France 1917-1918. In 1919, he was granted leave with pay from 24 March to 24 September to attend the ‘Deaf and Dumb Institution’ at Donaldsons Hospital, Edinburgh and during those months he visited many of the schools for the deaf in the UK. In January 1920 he returned to Australia per Ypiringa for discharge on 23 February 1920, and continued teaching deaf children. Service Medals: BWM and VM. The stately Donaldsons building dates from 1830 and between 1850 and 1939 it functioned as a orphanage and school for both deaf and hearing children. In 1893, John’s father was manager of a sugar plantation in British Guiana, when both parents died of dysentery. John and three siblings were placed in the care of their grandparents in St Andrews. The two boys were placed in Donaldsons Orphanage. John was a bright student and became fluent with the deaf thus at the age of 16, he accepted a position as a resident master at the school and studied in Edinburgh to qualify as a teacher. In 1912 he accepted a position in Sydney. In December 1926, he married Gladys Margaret Headford, also a teacher of the deaf, and accepted the dual role of Superintendent and Headmaster of what was later renamed the W.A. School for the Deaf Inc. By State law, the education of a physically or sensory handicapped child was the parents’ responsibility and charitable institutions educated deaf and blind children. Sir Talbot Hobbs designed and supervised the construction of the Deaf School on Oceanic Drive, later 35 Curtin Avenue Mosman Park, opened by Sir John and Lady Forrest in March 1900. The school treasurer in 1914, was Edmund Drake-Brockman who served at Gallipoli and was later given command of the 16th Bn. John Love, proved to be an able administrator and a highly regarded teacher of the deaf. The rubella (German measles) epidemics of 1939-41 and 1948, left a considerable number of children profoundly or partially deaf. John could not accommodate all the affected children and consequently, in 1949 the WA Education Department contracted to accept responsibility for all hearing impaired children on the condition that the four acres of land at Cottesloe and all buildings thereon, be transferred to government ownership. In the years that followed, the State progressively accepted responsibility for the education of all handicapped children. John Love was an active member of the Mosman Park RSL for more than 30 years until his retirement from the Deaf School in 1954. He died in 1962 and was honoured with the naming of the John O. Love Hostel for Adult Deaf in Goderich St. Perth (now demolished).
