James Porter was the third of eight children. His father was an alcoholic and didn't work for several years before his death in 1910. The family was on rations and James' mother did some washing and the boys worked before and after school until the older three, leaving school at eleven, could support the family. They had hard times in poor homes in Hackney and the City but James was an adventurous lad who enjoyed all the diversions that the Torrens and City had to offer. Aged about seventeen he went to work at Edwin Park's bakehouse in Rundle Street where he had worked as a schoolboy, and remained for thirty six years. Mr Porter married in 1919 and after successive rented houses his employers helped him to pay off a home in Kent Town. 'They were good people. Still, I worked pretty hard for them.'

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