CAPEL Sound resident Ron Lloyd celebrated his 106th birthday on Wednesday 8 April. The resident of Regis Capel Sound is still very active and a keen participant in the home’s lifestyle activities, maintaining a full and varied social calendar.
Ron was born at Box Hill in a private hospital on Whitehorse Road. On that site now stands the Box Hill Town Hall, that he maintains was built there to commemorate his birth.
Ron said he was very lucky to be born to wonderful parents and had a very happy childhood and teenage life.
He grew up behind his family’s butcher shop in Box Hill and would help out in the family business.
In those early days, the butchers would use horse and carts for deliveries, and Ron had his own pony that he would use to travel around.
Ron grew up during the Great Depression.
“I was very fortunate, during the 1920s and 1930s as I was young enough for the depression not to affect me, but we used to have people come into our shop with sustenance tickets from the government,” said Ron.
“My parents would supply them with meat in exchange for the sustenance ticket and we were reimbursed by the government.
“I was lucky as a young fella because I was home. If I’d been born five years earlier it would’ve been a different story. Young people couldn’t find work.”
Ron went to school until he had achieved his Merit Certificate (grade 8). He then left school and started studying for a trade when his parents decided they wanted to take a holiday.
“Because I knew all about the business by then, I was 14, I’d been delivering on a Saturday morning and after school, I had to stay home and work the business,” said Ron
“I never went back to school. “I never completed anything after the Merit Certificate. You went to school in those days until you were 14, you could leave school at 14.”
Ron’s teenage years were spent “either dancing or at the pictures”.
When he turned 18 in 1938, his mother and father were frightened that he’d buy a motorbike. So they talked him into buying a block of land instead; Ron’s first foray into real estate.
He would hold onto that block until after the war and sell it for £450. “I had a guilty conscience for making so much money on it, “ said Ron.
He did finish up finally buying a motorbike – a Dunelt 2 stroke that cost him £10 which Ron describes as “the best £10 I ever spent”.
In 1940, Ron was called up for military service. He had been working as a butcher, and applied to get into the army service corps as a butcher.
He had his 21st birthday in April 1941 at Werribee and became engaged to Roma. The two had met at a dance around 1939.
“The first time we met, we danced together all night. You might say our future was decided.”
Ron was moved around different camps and locations in Australia during the early years of his army service, taking opportunities (some authorised and some not) to get away and see Roma.
Eventually he was shipped off to New Guinea where, after six months, he contracted dengue fever and ended up in a field hospital.
Heading back to the war after leave in Australia, he contracted malaria, so never made it back overseas after that.
“I’ve always said, I had a very lucky run in the Army. I’ve seen enough to know what it was all about, but I managed to dodge the worst of it. So yes, I was lucky,” said Ron.
After the war Ron returned to his old profession as a butcher. His father made him a partner in the family business.
Roma and Ron’s first child, David, arrived in 1959 and their second child, Jennifer, was born in 1952. Sadly for the family, David died at age 46 from melanoma.
Ron worked until the age of 57 when, with the business in decline due to the changing nature of the area, he was suffering from ill health.
“After suffering chest pains I diagnosed myself as having a heart problem, so I decided that I’d shut the shop, and get part time work.”
Ron’s first taste of the Mornington Peninsula was by steamer trip.
“In the 1920s and 1930s a lot of trades and associations – such as the grocers and the butchers – would have a picnic and would have annual trips down the bay on the paddle steamers. As a boy I went on several of these trips,” said Ron.
Time was spent in Rosebud when his parents first brought him camping there during his school years in the 1930s.
“They camped where the Village Green is now. There was one pump for brackish water, and there was one toilet which you couldn’t get near. All the men used to cross the highway with a shovel to go to the toilet; it was all bush and scrub where the Rosebud Pub is now,” said Ron.
“And then after the war, Roma and I came down and we stayed for a holiday; we stayed in a caravan on a block of land around about Jetty Road somewhere. Then in 1949 we used to take flats on the corner of Fifth Avenue and the highway – Rose’s Flats. We had quite a few holidays there. I used to do a lot of fishing with the fishing parties off the Rosebud Pier. We’d catch flathead by the million.”
This began a decades-long affiliation with Rosebud and Rosebud West. The family would come down camping initially in a tent, and then caravanning, until in 1975 they built a place in Rosebud West.
Retirement also brought caravanning trips and travel opportunities.
Ron lost Roma in 2002 to pancreatic cancer. She was 82. “I have missed her terribly of course,” said Ron.
Ron kept the house in Box Hill, the old family home, and the home down in Rosebud West.
“Until I was 98 I was still lucky enough to be able to drive between the two properties. I used to spend five nights a week in Rosebud and two nights in Box Hill.
“At 96, I bought myself a new car. I’m sorry I didn’t get one with a seven year guarantee, the one I’ve bought only had a three year guarantee!”
Ron moved permanently into his Rosebud West place in 2018. After suffering a heart attack in June 2025 leaving him short of breathe after exertion, he moved into care in September.
On moving into Regis Capel Sound, he immediately grabbed the title of the oldest resident.
Ron has quickly become well-known among residents and employees for his friendly nature and love of conversation. He is always happy to stop for a chat with those around him.
And what is Ron’s secret to longevity?
“I don’t think you can put it down to wise living. I’ve always eaten a bit too much. I must say I’ve never been a drinker. I gave up smoking when I was 55-56. To this day I don’t know how my wife put up with me, smoking a packet a day. It’s a dirty habit,” said Ron.
And Ron’s final word? “I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had a good life.”
First published in the Mornington News – 14 April 2026
