The days are getting longer, the sun shines more often, we haven’t caught up for a while, so its time for a Class Lunch!
Then next class(y) lunch in Canberra is on Monday 28 Aug at 1200 at the Duxton.
Please let Kym MacMillan know if you’d like to attend. All are welcome, including spouses/partners and out-of-towners.
Latest email from Pete Jenke re the Legacy Torch Relay:
“Just an update on my earlier emails.
By now I’m hoping that many of you, if not most, would have seen some of the quite incredible publicity which the Relay has generated since it began its journey in Pozieres, France, then onto England and then to Australia, landing in Albany from where our diggers departed for Egypt and Europe in WW1.
Many, many dignitaries have been involved with the Relay, not the least being HRH, King Charles, in London. Again, hopefully you’ve managed to see or read about some of this coverage, both from France and England, as well as here in Australia. Not surprisingly, although there’s been a constant national overview, most of the media focus has been locally based so that for those in Victoria, and particularly in Melbourne, we should see the media attention ramp up as the Relay approaches Victoria in the next month or so. The Relay culminates here, in Melbourne, on Friday the 13th October (perhaps a little unfortunate in the date). Have a look at the Facebook link below to get a flavour of what’s been involved.
For those that have already contributed, I thank you and Legacy thanks you. Thanks to your efforts, I’m currently sitting on a figure raised of $4,325, which sees me 11th on the list in terms of total collections, an effort of which I’m very pleased and proud. For those others amongst you, if you would like to contribute to me or any other Torch Bearer whom you may wish to support, you can do so via the link below. You may also have friends and families, some of whom may even have been touched by Legacy, so by all means feel free to pass on this email. It really is for a good cause.
Regards and Thankyou
Peter Jenke
Dave Forster has provided an analysis of the photo John Elph posted recently. He’s pretty sure it’s 4-2 in 1970. Noons (Paul Noonan) and he have both had a close look and tried to put names to faces. His assessment is attached and Dave agrees with most of his conclusions – although not convinced that he’s identified Dave as he notes.(I’ve paraphrased his email)
As he writes “Anyway, it does trigger memories for anyone so blessed to have have undergone their basic training at that delightful resort.”
“The Northern Chapter“ of our Class is holding a lunch on 12 July at The Ship Inn starting at 12 30 pm – but John Mac will be there earlier to welcome any starters. The lunch coincides with a visit to the north by Rod Allan, so an opportunity for even more of a catch-up net. All are welcome, from wherever, so please let John know – mailto:john.m.mcnamara@bigpond.com – if you are in town and can make it. Probably be a quiet lunch as most likely they’ll be mourning the loss of the State of Origin this year.
Thanks to Pat Cullinan for emailing the following information:
“Reference our class journal, ‘Royal Military College, Duntroon 1969 – 1972‘, I spoke to the National Library’s ‘Ask a Librarian‘ service (phone 02-6262 1266) and after describing the Journal content and historical significance to her, she said that the Library would very much like a (hard) copy. They are particularly interested in material that has Australian content and the Journal fits this criteria perfectly. An ISBN publication number is not required.
A hard copy could be hand delivered to the National Library of Australia (NLA) or posted to;
Legal Deposit
National Library of AustraliaParkes Place,
Canberra ACT 2600
and / or
to send an electronic copy, a form that is on NLA website under Ned (National e–Deposit) can be filled out with the e-copy of the Journal attached.”
I think this is a great idea and would complement the copy that will be donated to the Duntroon Museum. As the book is now widely distributed I do not expect that there would be any issue with making it even more publicly available but if you do have concerns let me know.
There is an updated electronic version of the book on the website, which will be amended/edited as required. For example, there are better resolution photos in some cases – and in many the ‘original’ photo that was supplied (or not) dating from 1969 has been replaced with the mug shots most of us had taken on signing on the dotted line.
A small but distinguished group of classmates and partners caught up for lunch on Tuesday. A couple of late drop outs – two because of the dreaded COVID diagnosed that same day!
Next lunch catch up is planned for Monday 28 August so please pencil that in your diary. All classmates (and partners) from anywhere are of course welcome. Kym will send out details closer to the date.
We have been able to track down just one photo of the gathering on the Gold Coast on Wednesday 24 May.
Recent email from Steve Jones:
I Recently I hosted Norm Goldspink (95 years old) and Colin Fischer (91 years old) to watch the video of the 2022 RMC Graduation Parade. I had lined Norm up to attend the parade but he decided that he was not up to it a couple of days beforehand, which was disappointing but understandable. So I decided to get him to my house to watch it. I also invited Colin Fischer (my father-in-law) who was the Bandmaster at our Graduation but was not at RMC at the same time as Norm. Colin was posted there in June 1972 and of course Norm left at the end of 1971.
They enjoyed the parade. They commented on the fact that the graduates all carried swords. Colin commented that he thought the tempo was too high, which he said made it hard to march to the music. Norm is not impressed with dressing – now done by marching as against “shuffling” in our day. They both commented that it was a very good spectacle, which is what it was all about really. We all recognised that the cadets on parade had nowhere near the amount of drill practice that we had, given the short course by comparison and the emphasis now on more general military training in all classes.
While Colin and Norm didn’t work together in our time, they did know each other from earlier days when Colin, as a Warrant Officer Bandmaster at the then Southern Command Band, had provided musicians to the RMC Band and he had stayed in the Sergeants Mess at Duntroon. Of course they also dealt with each other when Norm returned to Duntroon and Colin was still the Bandmaster.
All in all it was a good two hour experience enjoyed by the three of us.
Royal Military College – Duntroon, Australian Army | Canberra ACT | Facebook posts, RMC Graduation Parade vimeo
Above is the link to the parade video.”
As an aside, Norm was at at Jim Molan’s funeral. He came into the Protestant side and sat down. It was great to see that a couple from the class of 1971 came and got him and presumably took him to the Catholic side where the Service was conducted as a mark of respect.
Canberra classmates are to meet again on Tuesday 30 May at 1230 at The Duxton – see https://theduxton.com.au
As always, partners and any other mates in town are most welcome.
Could you let Kym know your attendance by Thursday evening so he can get a table booked –kymmac@ozemail.com.au
The Sydney crew gathered in Sydney today for our quarterly chat at the class ordained watering hole, Club York. Apart from many others celebrating Paddy’s day it was also the day that John McNamara chose to visit the big smoke. No better reason to get together.
This year we welcome the Sydney members of the class of 68 who reside in NSW.
L to R
Front: Allan, Duncan, Paddy, Peter
Rear: David Taylor 68, Peter Lawrence 68/69, Gerry, Don, Bert Flynn 68, John Mac, Rowen, Dave, Steve, Peter. Not in photo John (Blue) Gallagher 68
Although it wasn’t intended the wallpaper in the background makes it appear as though we are in a bunker spinning warries.
(Editor’s Note: That would never happen, would it?)
RMC Class of 1972 