(Sydney on birth certificate) (Sid or Mac)

Lived in Willaura (22 miles from Ararat, between Ararat and Hamilton) until 14 months old; in Box Hill until 20 months old; then in Upper Hawthorn until 10 or 11

Attended Rathmine Road State School, Auburn (near Hawthorn), from 1917 to 1922 or 1923. He remembers Armistice Day, 1918, at that school - the children were given lemonade and bread with butter and hundreds and thousands. After the family moved to South Yarra, Sid went to Punt Road School.

At age 14 he went to Swinburne Technical school in Glenferrie. He was there for seven years - three in the Junior School and four in the Senior School. He remembers that the founder Sir George Swinburne visited the school frequently. He joined the walking club and met his future wife there. There is a photo of Sid and Marg together on a walking trip from 1930.

In 1929 Sid played football in Hawthorn seconds on Saturdays and for Swinburne Tech on Wednesdays. He only played for Hawthorn for part of one season but he played for Swinburne for six years, until he injured the cartilage in his knee. He then switched to tennis and played for the Brighton Districts C Grade. Five years later, in about 1934, he played with Melbourne High Old Boys in the third grade Metropolitan Amateurs for one and a half seasons.

Sid studied for a Diploma of Building Construction at Swinburne, passing all except English, and took extra courses in chemistry. His ambition to go on in science was cut short by the depression.

He worked with his father and uncle, Charles McNaughton, for two or three years during the depression. There was not much work available - just small repair jobs. They did many jobs for one man who owned rental properties. Sid remembers mixing concrete in a back alley with corrugated iron fences on either side and the temperature 103 degrees F in the shade. There were no welfare payments available so the family of four lived on about 15 shillings per week. (Ron, Aileen, Sid and Geoff)

In about 1934, Sid started his first real job, working with E.A.Watts. He was a time clerk, recording mens' time on the job and he was responsible for estimating the cost of all the extras and ordering materials for jobs. He left because the foreman, Lou Milne, suggested that there was likely to be a staff cut and, as Sid was last on "the staff", his job was at risk. Lou told Sid that there was a job going with another builder, Norm Millar. Watts didn't want Sid to leave - E.A. Watts assured him that there was a job for him. Sid found out many years later that Watts was grooming him to be an estimator but they hadn't told him.

From 1935 to 1937 Sid worked with Millar, as an estimator and their general office worker. He even did "one finger typing".

In 1937 he started his own business, working with his father, Ron. They built a large house in Hawthorn and the Presbyterian church in Scott St, Elwood, at the same time. They employed more workers including Claude Newman, Cyril Lark and George Alderson. George was a really good "brickie" (bricklayer) but he didn't work on the church. Sid was later married in that church.

Sid was called up during the war but was judged unfit on medical grounds, due to damaged knee cartledges from playing football. At that time he was doing building work at the Ammunition factory at Footscray. He was an air raid warden.

Sid and Ron worked together until Ron died in 1953. They built big residences in Toorak, small factories, the Gas and Fuel buildings in Tooranga, a Presbyterian church in North Balwyn and the school for Loretto Convent in South Melbourne (or Albert Park) They built parts of Catholic churches, stopping when the money ran out. These included alterations to the church in High St, Armadale. It was Father Ryan at that church who told Sid that Ron had died. Des Smith was the architect for the Catholic jobs.

They built Shell Petrol Stations including one at Lakes Entrance, where there was a problem stopping the petrol tanks from floating away when the tide came in. They had to build the foundation 4 feet wide for that station. At Lakes Entrance, Sid and Marjorie both had the flu and Sid said "Never had two people spent so long together and said so little"

Later Sid built the Nunawading Swimming Pool. The weather was bad that year and the job lost money because Sid had to keep his workforce, paying wages while the weather made it impossible to work outside.

President of the Builders and Allied Trades Association Caulfield 1962; member of the B.A.T.A. Board of Management 1963-64

Ca 1965 the firm R McNaughton and Son Pty Lty was liquidated by creditors and Sid again joined the staff of E.A.Watts, this time as an estimator. ******* He worked on Northlands and Eastlands Shopping Centres, the Footscray Market (an $11 million job), the R.M.I.T. Science Block, a large building in Parkville for the Melbourne City Council and at least ten schools. He "retired" from Watts in 1975 during a slow-down in the building industry.

From 1975 'till 1987 he kept doing "minor" jobs as a builder and carpenter. These included two for the Springvalley Fruit Juice company. In one he and his men replaced a wharehouse roof with only one and a half days production loss for the factory.

Sid retired properly in 1987 when 75 years old because his new wife, Dulcie, wanted a husband at home and made this a condition of getting married. He was active in the Carneggie RSL and Citizens Bowling Club

Sid lived at the same address, 1 Walsh Street Ormond, from his first marriage until 1997, when ill health forced him to move into a smaller unit in Leamington Crescent, Glen Huntly.