A true story

The author needs your help!

 

Jack Palmer was a beachcomber living on a boat travelling up and down the remote Western Australian coast in 1942. He found the diamonds on board the DC-3 and was later tried in the Supreme Court of WA for stealing the diamonds. He was acquitted. But who was he and where was he from?

 

John Palmer aka Diamond Jack enlisted with the Australian Military Forces in 1942.

 

 

 

Here's his services record.

 

 

 

The Service record states he was born  in NSW on 15 January 1896 and has no known relatives. According to NSW Births Deaths and marriages only one John Palmer was born in  NSW in November 1896.  This birth recorrd is not Diamond Jack's.. So with no known birth record and no known relatives  exactly where John Palmer came from  remains uncertain.

 

Broome was a place where people went to hide. The loner made a living travelling the coast on a boat collecting pearl shell and salvaging items that washed ashore. Was Jack Palmer his real name? Did he have something to hide?

 

If you can help email me at  juliet.wills@gmail.com