Three great days of company, golf, wine and food.

Three great days of company, golf, wine and food.

Crans caught up with Pam and Frank Edwards in Margaret River a week or so ago. Three days and two nights wonderfully hosted by Pam and Frank in their lovely home, and capped off by a farewell lunch in beautiful surroundings at the Hamelin Bay Winery.




Peter Jenke has sent an email thank you to all who have contributed to his upcoming marathon in support of the Legs for Legacy event. He’s worried that it may not have got through to all recipients, so it is reproduced below:
“Good evening, all.
The Legacy Torch Relay is now approaching its final leg here in Melbourne, where it will arrive on Thursday the 12th October when I will amble along my allotted leg to which so many of you have contributed. What follows is a quote from my Editorial in the attached copy of Melbourne Legacy’s Bulletin magazine.
“Afterall, it’s not every charity in Australia which can boast the active support of HRH the King himself, an assortment of French, British and Australian politicians and ex-politicians, high profile individuals from all walks of life, as well as His Excellency, the Governor General and his wife who have both been extremely active in promoting the Relay, as well as personally participating in the Relay in the Governor General’s home town of Wollongong. Also of note and in the same vein, the GG will be receiving the Torch in Melbourne at the Relay’s conclusion.”
I’m still just short of $5k, so if anyone wishes to tip me over that benchmark, go for it. Legs for Legacy : Torch Bearer Fundraisers
Regardless, for those who have contributed to the Relay – either to me or to someone else you may have chosen to support, thank you. And Legacy thanks you. For those who haven’t, it’s not too late.
I’m attaching for your info a copy of the October edition of Melbourne Legacy’s Bulletin magazine which I produce.
Thankyou everyone
Peter Jenke”


Catchup yesterday at, as usual, the Duxton. Started at 1200 – apart from one classmate who arrived for a 1230 start!

Left to right sitting: Darryl Poole, Michele White, New White, Dave Urquhart, Garry Kelly. Standing: Kym MacMillan, Bill Houston, Marina Houston, David Cran, Pat Cullinan, Trish Cran, Eric Rigter.
Our next planned (pre Xmas) lunch will be on Mon 27 Nov – everyone welcome.
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.
