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1960 and 1963. In 1962–1963 he was concurrently Commanding Officer for the Launceston Area of the Command
and Staff Training Unit (Tasmania Command).
He transferred to Darwin in 1963, where he was founding manager of Ajax Insurance Ltd until 1974; he was
appointed Justice of the Peace for the Northern Territory in 1965. Maintaining his CMF involvement, he was
appointed Commanding Officer of the Command and Staff Training Unit (CSTU) (Northern Territory Command)
on 6 August 1963. This unit had been raised in Darwin in 1960, commanded by Lieutenant Ron McLean, an
employee of the Northern Territory Electricity Commission. In conjunction with the Commander NT Command,
Lieutenant Colonel Bob Miller, Haydon recast the role of the CSTU to achieve a series of objectives: the build-up
of the officer component of NT Command, the training of officers and non-commissioned officers up to the rank
of Sergeant, the selection of officers for CMF appointments, and the revision of the NT Command General Service
Directory. The lattermost of these objectives required CSTU to maintain, under the supervision of the General
Staff Officer grade 2 (GSO-2) on Headquarters NT Command, a directory of significant features in the Northern
Territory. This involved compiling all general information that could be of subsequent use to the military, such as
the location of all the bores used by the Army during the Second World War. It is interesting to note that this role
of infrastructure gathering was revived by NORFORCE after it was raised by Lieutenant Colonel A J George
in 1981.
The Indonesian confrontation with the Dutch over Western New Guinea in 1961 was followed by another
confrontation with the newly created Federation of Malaysia commencing in September 1963. In response to
these activities to the north of Australia, and so close to Darwin in particular, in June 1964 Haydon proposed
to Headquarters NT Command the formation of an Army Reserve independent company capable of conducting
infantry operations at a low level ‘with the maximum amount of mobility support from vehicles (all weather type)
and helicopters’. This concept was approved by the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General John Wilton,
during a visit to the Northern Territory in the latter half of 1964, and Haydon’s CSTU accordingly began upgrading
the infantry training of officers in Darwin in readiness for staffing this new company. Because of the escalation of
Confrontation, the 121st Light Anti-Aircraft Battery was raised instead, to defend the Royal Australian Air Force
Radar at Lee Point. Haydon was offered the command but declined due to his civil commitments, the job instead
going to a Regular Army officer, Major Lachlan (Lachie) Thomson. Thomson recalled that he received great
support from his CMF officers despite the change of Corps, and particularly from Jack Haydon: ‘He was not of
course a member of the battery, but he regarded us as a very special part of his parish as the senior reservist in the
Command. Given the lack of urgency from the entrenched ARA command element, I was most grateful to have a
senior officer prepared to lend a friendly ear to my worries and I have a feeling that he probably had a few short,
sharp conversations with the ‘powers that be’ concerning support for the battery’. Haydon’s proposal for a rifle
company saw fruition a decade later, however, with the raising of the 7th Independent Rifle Company in Darwin
under the command of Major Pike.
The CSTU conducted training on the Pentropic Division and supporting arms, and on the phases of war, and
conducted regular range practices at Winnellie and on the old range at Larrakeyah Barracks, while field exercises
and annual camps were conducted at Shoal Bay. Other early members of the unit were Lieutenants Peter Polley
(Department of Lands), Kevin Lethlean (Manager of Caterpillar), John Johnson (Commonwealth Bank), Terry
Irvine (Manager of Darwin Pharmacy), and Maurie Moore (an accountant, subsequently Official Secretary to the
Administrator). Bob Franklin was a Lance-Corporal, and Major Alan Bromwich (Senior Specialist in Surgery,
Royal Darwin Hospital) was attached for duty as Medical Officer. Haydon instituted the Potential Officer’s Training
Course, conducted from October 1966 to December 1967, to formally train locally recruited CMF officers: among
the graduates of this first course, still living in Darwin at the time of publication, were Neil Benton and John Chin.
Colonel Haydon retired from the CMF in 1967 after 34 years’ service and was succeeded as Commander of CSTU
by Captain Maurie Moore. The Unit was disbanded in 1975 following Cyclone Tracy, but re-raised in 1980 as
Training Company, HQ 7th Military District, the precursor of the current 7th Training Group which was formed
on 1 August 1989.
From February to August 1975 Haydon served with the Darwin Reconstruction Committee, while from August
to December 1975 he was Managing Director of Haydon’s Insurance Consultants and Engineers. He formed the
Northern Territory Branch of the Insurance Council of Australia and later became the Regional Representative for
the Northern Territory, and was later Regional Chairman. From 1979 until his retirement in 1992 he was Regional
Director, Insurance Emergency Service and consultant to the Insurance Council of Australia.
He maintained his military connection as a lecturer in military history for 7th Military District from 1966
to 1981. He also maintained an active interest in history, having various associations with the Museum and Art
Gallery of the Northern Territory (notably arranging expeditions and commemorative plaques at Victoria settlement,
Port Essington, Fort Dundas and Fort Wellington), was a member of the Military Historical Society of Australia,
and was a contributor to the Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography. Later, he was a vigorous campaigner to
have veterans of active service in north Australia awarded the 1939–45 Star: as he said, ‘you are either being shot
at or you aren’t, whether you were in North Africa or the Northern Territory’.
From his arrival in Darwin, and particularly after his retirement from the Army Reserve (formerly the CMF),
he was President, Vice-President, Secretary or council member of more than 20 charitable and community
organisations. Notably, he convened a meeting of former gunners on 5 July 1967 at which meeting the Royal
Australian Artillery Association (Northern Territory) was created, with Haydon elected as Founding President,
a position he held until 1982. During the 1970s he was patron of the Rats of Tobruk Association (Northern Territory)
for the five years it existed. He was Chairman for 12 years of the East Point Reserve Board of Trustees; President
and Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society (Northern Territory) since 1977; Member and Vice-President