At 108 years of age, ex-Army signaller Jim Easton has seen the incredible evolution in communications technology, from carrier pigeons to satellites and cyber-warfare.
This is even more extraordinary in 2025, the centenary year of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RA Sigs).
Scottish-born Jim migrated to Australia with his family and spent his formative years in the Hunter Valley, moving to New Zealand after his service during World War II.
Major General (MAJGEN) Greg Novak and Sergeant Shaun Hackett, were in New Zealand for ANZAC Day commemorations and made a point of visiting Jim at Grace Joel Village to present him with some very special gifts.
Jim was presented a commemorative Corps centenary AU$1 coin, a book detailing the history of the Signals Corps and an 8th Division Signals colour patch in a special frame.
The book was inscribed with a special message to Jim written by MAJGEN Novak on behalf of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals.
“Hopefully it will be something to remind you of your time in the Corps and our visit,” MAJGEN Novak told Jim.
MAJGEN Novak said he couldn’t pass up another opportunity to pay Jim a visit, this time during the Corps centenary year.
“I wanted to make sure I took the opportunity to see Jim and keep that connection going.
“Our links to those who’ve served before us are precious, especially when they represent a history that goes back as far as Jim’s. To the best of our knowledge, Jim is our most senior living veteran of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals and meeting with him in our Corps’ centenary year made this visit especially memorable,” he said.
It was the second visit for MAJGEN Novak, who first met Jim in February 2023 when he was Head of Corps RA Sigs (he is now the Commander of Space Command).
Since then, Jim has welcomed the company of Australian Army representatives at his 107th and 108th birthdays, and proudly displays photos of the occasions and his various gifts in his room.
Though formally established in 1925, the corps’ roots stretch back to as early as the Torpedo and Signalling Corps in 1869, signallers were active in the earliest days of the Gallipoli Campaign where signal engineers of the Australian Divisional Signal Company were among the first to come ashore on the morning of the April 25, 1915.
Throughout the campaign amid steep ridgelines, dense scrub and relentless enemy fire, they ran telephone wires, operated heliographs and signal lamps, and carried messages across exposed ground, among other duties to maintain lines of communication.
