Cairney, Jack (1929 - 2010)

John Dorrian Cairney, known as Jack, was born in Toronto in 1929. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a midshipman in 1948, where he trained on HMCS Ontario. He qualified as a Naval Air Observer and served in Naval Air Stations in UK, US, and Canada. He specialized in Naval Communications, serving on HMC Ships Magnificent, Assiniboine, Crescent, Bonaventure, and HMCS Saguenay as Executive Officer. In addition to sea duty, postings included Maritime Headquarters in Halifax (Stadacona), Dartmouth (Shearwater), Victoria (Naden), and Norfolk, Virginia (Westlant HQ/NATO). He was Naval Advisor to the International Truce Commission in Viet Nam in 1960 and Canadian Commissioner to Cambodia in 1961, earning the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal and the International Commission for Supervision and Control Service Medal. Jack retired from the Navy in 1976 to join a team of Canadians as Communications Consultants on a project to create a National Coast Guard for the government of Iran, which was halted by the fall of the Shah. He was a Certified Management Accountant and Certified Management Consultant working with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on development projects in Asia, SE Asia, East Africa and the Caribbean. In 1990, he moved to Jakarta for 10 years where he was Project Management Advisor to the Government of Indonesia for accountancy development projects. While living in Indonesia, he travelled extensively throughout SE Asia with his wife Betty. Betty and Jack retired to Key West Florida in 1999, and later moved to Victoria in 2006, where they settled in Cordova Bay.