Established in 1929 as the NSW Society for Crippled Children, Northcott Disability Services was founded by the Rotary Club of Sydney to provide for children physically-debilitated by tuberculosis, polio and other diseases in the early part of last century. Initially, 1153 children were registered as needing support.

Today, Northcott Disability Services is one of the state's leading service providers for people with a broad range of disabilities.

It has grown from humble beginnings to support 8000 people with a wide range of disabilities, their families and carers across NSW and the ACT.

In 1992, the society dropped reference to ``crippled'' in order to reflect a changing client base in a more positive and affirming way.

In 1995, The NSW Society for Children and Young Adults with Physical Disabilities as it had become, was renamed to The Northcott Society in honour of Sir John Northcott.

In preserving important links with its past once again, The Northcott Society is now known as Northcott Disability Services.

The late Sir John Northcott was by any reckoning a most eminent Australian. At 24, he was wounded during combat in World War I, shot as soon as he landed on the beach at Gallipoli and lay seriously wounded throughout the day.

As evening fell, a medical orderly noticed he was moving and went to his aid.

Presumably, if that had not happened, John Northcott would have died that day at Gallipoli along with the thousands of other Australian and New Zealand soldiers who died in the campaign.

He kept the bullet subsequently removed from his body and throughout his life wore it on his watch chain. It remains in his family's possession to this day.

By the end of the war, he had attained the rank of captain but it was during World War II that he reached the highest echelons of the Australian Army.

He was Chief of the General Staff from 1942 to 1945 and in 1946 appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth Forces of Occupation in Japan.

He had only been a few months in Japan, however, when he was appointed as NSW's first Australian-born governor. It was in that role that he became associated with The NSW Society for Crippled Children as its Patron.

For more information, visit www.north

cott.com.au.