Biography: Photo: Paul AUDCENT
Paul Jacques
AUDCENT (1941- )

Signature of Paul AUDCENT


Paul Jacques Audcent was born on the 18th August 1941, at Bristol Maternity Home, the third son of Jacques Louis Alexis Audcent and his wife Sylvia Constance Peat. He had for Godfather his paternal grandfather Louis Felix Henri Audcent and had for godmother his aunt Eileen Winifred Audcent (nee Kenway).

He attended Park Place RC Primary School in Clifton and he took his 11 plus in 1952 and was selected by the Education Committee to attend St. George Grammar School, Church Road, Bristol 5, beginning his studies there on the 8th September of that year, because the his father's selected school St. Brendans College, was already filled by Roman Catholic students who were higher in the order of merit. His father, however, wrote to the Education Department of the City and County of Bristol, requesting that his son be placed in St. Brendans College, Clifton and to this effect he attended with his son Paul on the 14th July 1952, an interview with T.A. Lennon Headmaster of that College, and was then advised by letter from the Education Department dated 31st July that they were now able to offer him a place at St. Brendans, the school attended by his two older brothers. His father duly responded by entering into a School Agreement with City and County of Bristol dated 2nd August 1952 confirming his request that his son should become a pupil of St. Brendans.

He remained at St Brendans for the period September 1952 until July 1958, obtaining in his 'O' level examinations, English, History, Art, Science, Religion and Geography. He was a member of the Army Cadet Force (CCF) and attained the rank of acting sergeant.

He originally worked for Fisons, at their branch office in Avonmouth as a business cadet, and whilst there studied and passed his examinations for the Higher National Certificate in Business Administration and two years later passed his Institute of Purchasing Final Diploma to become a purchasing officer. Fisons then sent him to Maidenhead to become Supply Manager of Gas Chromatography where he stayed for two years reorganising their company supply arrangements and storage facility.

His cousin Michael Geoffrey Audcent had emigrated to Australia in 1965, and Paul was to follow his example, he applied for the £10 passage scheme to Australia and emigrated in April 1967, one of his last actions before he left England being to visit his sister-in-law Christine at the Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson Hospital in London, where she had just given birth to his latest nephew Justin.

Arriving in Australia, he was met by his cousin Michael, and in due course proceeded to obtain a position at the major mining centre of Mount Isa, Queensland, where he resided at 8 Skewes Street. Paul was elected President of the Clerical Union of Northern of Queensland a position he held for three years and worked as clerical payclerk for the mines. He was the only person ever to be involved with wage award negotiations on both sides i.e. Company and Union and acted as chair during these negotiations.

At his flat in Brisbane on the 18th of August he was to meet his future wife Christine who's birthday was on the following day. One of the two children, both daughters, of Ellis Beaumont Reid and his wife Dorothy Bullock. At the same time, another Englishman called Leigh was also going out with her sister. On 3rd October 1969 at Brisbane, in Queensland, a dual wedding took place, Paul married Christine Reid, and her sister Wendy also married Leigh in the local Baptist church. The latter marriage was to fail quite soon after, due to incompatability.

He returned to England shortly after with his new wife, and decided to settle in the Country. They stayed with his parents, at Corazon, 3 Clifton Wood Road, Bristol, and whilst there, Christine gave birth to their first child Simon Marc (1972) at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. Following his birth they moved to a rented house in Wooton-under-edge and a year later moved to a new home in Tetbury, Gloucester. Paul had commenced work as Production Buyer for Jackson Electric in Yate and headed the purchasing section for this very large company owned by Tube Investments Ltd. where he remained for four years and then offered a post in New Zealand for the same company. He helped install an IBM inventory package in Yate prior to his move.

Once again, Paul decided to accept the Companies offer, and he and his wife and their young son, emigrated once more, this time to New Zealand, where they were to settle at 24 District Road, Roseneath, Sawyers Bay Dunedin on the South Island. He joined Radiation NZ and shortly became Supply Manager.  He was asked to install a similar Inventory/Suppy package with a rudementary MRP system which he completed sucessfully. This time he set about building his own home. He purchased two adjoining plots of land at Sawyers Bay, and proceeded to layout the site and construct the new house and grounds.  Their young daughter Julie Louise was born in Dunedin Hospital in 1974.  In 1975, they finally moved into their new home at Longbarn, 36 Fairview Terrace, Sawyers Bay, Otago.  They were to remain there for ten years, during which period, they were visited by his sister Jeannine and his aunt Evelyn Alice Peat. Paul was made Computer Manager as well as Supply Manager and installed the IBM manufacturing IPICS system which was then the first of the mainframe accounting/manufacturing packages to be written specifically for manufacturers with an fully integrated MRP and CRP functionality.  Paul's site was used by IBM as a Beta site for some of the new modules. The company rose from fifth position to second in its competitive market within three years. Paul stayed with the company for seven years.

He returned to England for a long holiday with his wife Christine and family arriving on the 1st July 1981, staying for ten weeks.  During this period, a special welcome party was given by his brother Tony in Cheddar, to which all the Audcent family remaining in England came, together with the Peat Aunts and Uncle and the Newton cousins.  His brother David took a group photograph and most of those present had a copy.

They returned home and Paul found temporary employement as a Management Resource Researcher for Dunedin Parks and Recreation.  He was given the task of drawing up suggested policies for the Councils recreational areas and plots of unused grounds on the Otago Peninsular which was later published by his Department for public discussion. In 1982, Paul was asked by Sanyo in Dunedin to head a project to implement a software package into their Dunedin Factory, and it was succesfully completed within budget and time.  In 1984 Christine wished to return to Australia and she, Paul and children set out to seek a new position in Sydney, Australia.  This was to turn out to be a wise move as he found a job within three weeks as a Business Analyst with Arnotts Biscuits.  It was during this period that his wife Christine left him and the two children, to run her restaurant with a friend, and in due course they agreed to a divorce and she later married Harry Butler.  As part of the settlement Paul was to give 1/2 of the value of the house that he had spent so long building.

Paul settled in a place called Concord, a district of Sydney, not far from Michael Audcent, where he and his two children lived.

Lonely, and concerned for the welfare of his children, he met Cherie Robertson nee Martin (the daughter of Clive Martin and his wife Laura), a young woman considerably younger than himself (she was born 5th May 1959), who had also divorced from her husband Philip Robertson and had two daughters (Amanda and Jennifer) from that marriage, both of whom had been placed with their father. They only knew each other for 3 months or so, when they decided to marry, and accordingly, Paul married for the second time on the 17th December 1988, in Sydney.  The marriage was not a success.  The moment he was married, his wife decided that she wanted him to pay for her to go on a course, thus leaving the children unattended.  It was also clear that she was not prepared to make the effort required to gain Simon and Julie's respect and love.  In the event, the marriage terminated as quickly as it had started, and Paul and Cherie were separated and divorced.

Whilst in Concord and with the money that he had from the NZ home, he bought 5 acres of land at, Longley, Tasmania, and this was finally paid for on the 24th February 1990.  Once again, he had the intention to build himself a new home on the site.  At that time he had not visited Tasmania, but he decided to take on another Contract with Email and then later with Hussman (Australia) and he implemented manufacturing packages for them both sucessfully.  With the income, he decided to design and build a home for the site, to which end he left his job in 1991 and moved the children down to Longley in Tasmania.

In the event he could not find work in Tasmania, and also suffered from ill-health, but decided to develop the land and commence building the house, so set up home, at 21 Abelia Drive, with his daughter Julie in their old caravan, whilst he commenced work on the land he had purchased.  His son Simon returned to Sydney, after helping to fence the land in Longley, and stayed with his father's first cousin Michael and family.  Paul began first by setting up the site, including the formation of a lake.  He could no longer afford the total home, but spent his time building the foundations of the house, planting trees and site construction while he saved for the other half of the house materials.  

In due course, he received firstly monies due him from the sale of 10 West Street, Watchet on the death of his Aunt Evelyn Alice Peat, being a quarter share of the 50% of the property owned by his Aunt Muriel Florence Peat, Paul was then able to finish the building to lock up stage.  Then his cousin Michael loaned him the rest to complete the internal work.  Michael had visited him and his daughter to find out how they were doing, and found them living in the caravan and an incomplete house.  With these benefits, 50% of the internal materials was purchased, and the house rapidly finished.  Finally early in 1993, he and his daughter Julie moved into the new home.  He sold the caravan and repaid Michael's loan having received a portion of his superannuation from the relevant Super Board.  Julie loved the caravan and was sad to see it sold for it had been their home for two years, and accommodated her cat 'Flash' and dog 'Ranger' as well as Simon on a visit.

Later that same year, through the assistance of his mother, Paul was able to return on his own, once again visit all the relations in England, and have a break from the major effort he had made in constructing a second home.  Julie his daughter remained in Longley to look after their new home.

Pessimistic concerning work prospects, he returned home, to have the good fortune in finding a position as a Client Support Manager with an Australian Software Company: Synchrony Manufacturing for Victoria.  By 1992, his affairs were once again good order, (he had already paid back his debts to his cousin Michael).  The position, however, took him to Melbourne, where he rented a flat at 6/219 Burke Road, Glen Iris, Melbourne, Victoria, 3146.  His new position, meant that he had to use Personal Computers, a complete change from the Mainframe Computers that he had used previously.  Simon, his son therefore, remained in Sydney, and Julie his daughter remained in Longley in Tasmania.

During his absence in England, Julie had become pregnant by her boyfriend Adrian Williams, and their baby Andrew was born in March 1994. Paul decided to let Julie and Adrian continue to occupy the Tasmanian home, rent free, during his absence.  In due course arrangements were made for the young couple to marry on the 7th October 1995, at the local Catholic Church at Kingston near Hobart.

Fortunately for Paul, his job meant that he occasionally had to return on business to Sydney and thus he was able to maintain contact with his son Simon and his cousin Michael and family, and also his other cousin Helen Vaz nee Vincent who had married at Fareham in England, Alfred George Vaz and finally emigrated to Sydney to her husband's adopted country in 1994.

Paul decided once more to visit the family in the UK arriving December 1995. He had intended to come with his son Simon, but Simon who was to save his own fare, had not been able to by the time he left and he had decided to delay his arrival until the marriage of his first cousin Jonathan, at Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland, in May 1996.

Paul, supported the Victorian clients and implemented a number of SYMIX projects.  SYMIX of America eventually purchased the Australian distributorship from Synchrony and Paul was transferred to their new company.  During this time the Melbourne office rapidly expanded as new 'state of the art' software was released and successfully installed.  In 1997 Paul decided that he wished to return to his home in Longley, and undertake work as a consultant/sub-contractor for project implementation with SYMIX.  His daughter and son-in-law had also purchased their own land and were building a home next to his own. Paul has now set up his own office at home in Longley, however, he will be available to travel throughout the mainland on project work as and when required. This will also allow him more time to develop his home.  Before I was due to return to New Zealand to take another major project I suffered a heart attack which forced me from continuing contracting with Symix. I then recovered without surgery and did voluntary work for the Tasmanian Wilderness Society where I eventually was elected Treasurer. I also joined Amnesty and worked as their Co-coordinator of our Tasmanian members weekly letter writing campaign.

Then I joined Mentoring Tasmania which was a voluntary business help organization to aid new business people. And it was through Mentoring that I joined the board of Positive Solutions in a voluntary capacity. This was an organization with a license to aid in advice and conciliation for members of the public. It was subsidized by Federal Government funding.

I eventually retired from all this voluntary work in my late sixties to spend more time in retirement

Paul retired in 2001, and known as "Pudge" continues to produce wooden sculpture for sale, his web site is: http://home.iprimus.com.au/paudcent/

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