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Capatin Robert Wallace (K50-58))

1940-2010

At his funeral, the following address was read by Clinton Garratt, his nephew-in-law :

Thank you all for coming today to show your love and respect and many thanks to all those who have phoned, sent texts and emailed their messages of condolences, they have been much appreciated by the family. We especially want to thank Graham and Sue Simpson for the 24 hour support they have given to Bob and Jill during Bob’s stays in both the Royal Hobart & Launceston General Hospital.

Today we are here for two reasons, to mourn the loss of a good man and to celebrate a life that has been lived in every aspect.

Bob Wallace was born in Cambridge on the 28th of June 1940, an only child to Robert and Kathleen Wallace. Since that time he has touched us all in many ways.

Early life in England was not the easiest as WWII was in full swing when he was born. His mother was widowed in January 1941 when a tragic accident took his father’s life whilst serving with the Seaforth Highlanders. Growing up without a father was not unusual after the War. Bob was surrounded by love and nurtured by his mother and the communities of his school and Cambridge, enabling him to grown into the man we know.

Young Bob, a lanky lad with spindly legs, was educated at St Faith’s Anglican School Cambridge until the age of 10, followed by two years at a preparatory boarding school, Brandeston Hall, finishing matriculation at Framlingham Boarding College in Suffolk at 18 years of age.

During his childhood Bob was also known as Sid. He grew up when Swallows and Amazons, a book written about children solving mysteries in the English countryside and often in boats on the Suffolk coast, was popular. Whilst the characters in the book were adept at solving mysteries, Bob’s forte was in causing mischief.

One adventure was with his cousin Jasper in Devon. Bob and Jasper decided that it would fun be to use his Uncle Dick’s muskets, naturally, without permission. Instead of deciding to find an open place they felt that discretion was required and selected the raspberry canes, on a commercial farm, as a suitable place. Boys being boys, and not knowing the correct measures for muskets they gave what can only be said to be a generous measure. Bob volunteered to take the first, and only shot of the day. This shot not only sent the boys running, but the measure of gun powder destroyed two rows of commercial raspberries.

Jasper said of the incident, (and I quote) “I think the perforation of the raspberry canes was probably the most formative shared experience. We discovered the more dangerous the escapade the less likely you were to be severely ticked off, as the parents were generally even more relieved than we were. When we were very young the fact that Robert's look of pained innocence totally eclipsed my genuine look of pained innocence, I now regard as another valuable formative experience that prepared me for life's hurly burly!” (end quote)

We also thank Marion Riley, sister of one of Bob’s closest childhood friends, Tim, and her family for being here today and giving us insight into two more of his escapades as a child: one was a fascination with pigeons, and two - that he once had a brush with the law.

Bob used to spend much of his summer holidays with Tim Goodchild on their family’s farm in Essex. Bob was an avid hunter then and used to enjoy ‘having a pop’ in the fields, his favourite hunting spot was Long North Field and his favorite target, pigeons. Bob shot a lot of pigeons, at least he thought they were when he pulled the trigger, as his philosophy was not to get too close and, if he thought they had wings then they were pigeons. His best haul of birds were pigeons. However, with his propensity for the long-shot, how was Bob to know they were all tagged racing birds? No evidence of the racing birds was found, as they were served as the Goodchild family dinner.

Bob’s brush with the law came from a most unusual activity for a young man, car racing. Bob and his best mate Tim decided it would be wise to race home from the pub one night, only for the Essex Police, or ‘The Old Bill’, to see and chase them. The reaction, as would be for all young blooded men, was they both went faster. Knowing the back roads well they managed to safely get back to the farm, but the police were still on their trail. Tim managed to hide in the house and Bob, having a cunning plan decided to drive around the back of the barn and hide, in of all places, the feed trough. Both escaped capture, however, Bob was in need of a long bath.

At the age of 18 Bob joined Port Line as a cadet officer and began his tour of the world. After seven years of sailing around the world, on a fortuitous occasion, his ship, the Port Macquarie, docked in Melbourne where he met a Tasmanian lady called Jill in the officers’ bar Bob had built onboard. Jill promptly stole his bowler hat along with his heart. They met on 1 September 1966 and married on the 13th May 1967. Jill’s parents were delighted to welcome Bob into the family with her father quipping that, “He was glad she was now Bob’s responsibility and not his.”

They spent 18 months at sea together. They both have wonderful memories of travel around the globe over their 43 years of marriage. Each of their children were born in a different country, Vanessa - England; Bobby - South West Africa and Hamish the only true-blue Tasmanian.

In 1972 Bob, Jill and Vanessa moved to Cape Town to work for the Port and Railways. In 1975, Bob transferred as a Pilot to Walvis Bay in South West Africa. With close colleagues Keith Burchall and Keith Wearne they established a lifeboat service in Walvis Bay. The three men were instrumental in saving 17 sailors from the waters of the South Atlantic in the two years that Bob resided in Namibia.

In 1978, Bob and family returned to Tasmania where he commenced working for the Port of Launceston Authority. Whilst working for the PLA he was given the position of Officer in Charge of the Pilot Station at Low Head. This was a job he really enjoyed. He was lucky to inherit a great crew at the Pilot Station (Brian Lee, Ian ‘soapy’ Waters, Wayne Shipp, Ken Barnes and Nigel Haynes), who were not only adept in coping with all weathers in delivering pilots to ships but could turn their hand to anything, so much so that they made two notable achievements - winning a national tourism award and being awarded tidy town status in the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign.

Bob returned to sea on fast ferries in Australia and the United Kingdom in 1993 and later to bulk carriers sailing from Gladstone to Weipa.

Bob really enjoyed himself when he went back to sea, especially the friendships he developed in his 10 years on the Spirit of Tasmania. He and his friends developed a great camaraderie and many remained in contact with him. One of his close friends from the Spirit, Chris Mann, was the first person to visit him in the Royal Hobart Hospital, bringing a lovely bottle of wine as an alternative to medicine.

He also enjoyed the time he was involved in the handover of the new vessels and delivery of the SPOTs from the sunny Greek Islands of Syros, to a not so sunny Tasmania. To add to the hard labour he had to continue his role in the sale of the original SPOT, which entailed showing Scandinavians around the ship whilst moored in Sydney harbour. Bob decided he and Jill should go and visit his beloved ship in Denmark. They had a lovely time sailing from Hirtshals, Denmark into Bergen, Norway on Bob’s favourite old ship with the Scandinavian crew spoiling them.

Bob retired as a Ship’s Master in November 2009, at 69 years of age, 51 years after beginning his seafaring career.

Bob was a man of the community, serving long term as a Councillor, including a period as deputy Mayor. He has enjoyed sharing his experience of local government, tutoring future generations, including his nephew, Alderman James Simpson. Bob very much enjoyed reading on an almost daily basis, comments on the newly elected Burnie alderman.

In his home life the property in Hillwood allowed Bob to develop his passion as a hobby farmer and vigneron. However, there were times when his fascination with fire and firearms added to the entertainment of his neighbours.

Two of his most notable adventures in Hillwood were both attempts to eradicate pests from his home, ‘Sunbury Rise’. The first were his arch enemies, the wallabies. Bob had the benefit of being left-handed. This allowed him to maintain his grip on the rifle with his master-hand whilst cocking and reloading the weapon. One clear night, there was a smorgasbord of targets at his disposal.

After leaving a trail of wallabies, with the odd possum thrown in for good luck, his blessing of left-handedness became a curse; as by maintaining his left hand on the weapon, his trigger finger slipped and he managed to put a round through his foot with the bullet going deep into the earth - possibly through to China. The score, Bob 10, Wallabies 1. The pain was lessened by the fact that he had enjoyed a couple of glasses of red with his own home-grown roast lamb prior to the carnage. Bob 11, Wallabies 1, Lamb, nil.

The second pest challenge he had to overcome was rats. Bob was able to carefully put together some dry-wall rock bridges in a gully on the property. He made them so well and so dry that the rats decided to call them home. Now rats being smaller, and in larger numbers than wallabies, he overcame this problem with an inventive solution. Petrol!!!! 7 litres of it was the answer! Subsequently the bridges were doused in petrol, the only concern was the ignition source. The ABC, which provides so much information, gave him an idea. Using the old Valiant given to the Wallace’s by Carrie Goodchild, he hid behind it whilst throwing a molotov cocktail into the stone wall. The ensuing explosion shook the neighbourhood and resulted in a telephone call from their next door neighbour, Moira Partridge, saying, “Jill, he has finally done it, he’s blown himself up. You stay there I’ll go down and check”. That was the last time rats have ever been seen in the rocks. Let us say that it was a comprehensive win to Bob this time!

When Vanessa, Bobby and Hamish found their feet as adults, Bob and Jill were once again able to continue their wanderings. Since last December alone they have visited France, Gilbraltar, Morocco, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Seattle and New Orleans. Bob loved New Orleans and the street music - a track of which will be played here today.

Although Bob was often away galavanting around the globe, he loved to return to Tasmania to reunite with friends and, of great importance to him, was to see his granddaughter, Isobel. He is very proud of her achievements and three weeks ago saw her artwork displayed at the Tram Sheds in Inveresk.

In 2005, at a Port Line reunion dinner in London, Bobby was lucky enough join the old sailors and asked what stories they could tell about Bob’s exploits. A secret shield was put up with the general pirate answer of, “Aargh, I cannae tell you any stories about your father, but we tell a lot about your mother.” I hope there are some people here today that will break the silence and share more of Bobs escapades, as we remember a dear friend.

Bob’s illness became apparent when he was on another of his quarterly trips to England to visit Jill where she worked in Cambridge. He collapsed in Los Angeles airport on 30 April, was rescued by the fire-brigade and taken to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of a golf ball. He had no prior notice of illness at all. He continued to travel right up until a fortnight ago with a trip to Hobart for the unveiling of a plaque to honour merchant seamen during WWII. The following week the swelling in the brain took control and he lost his battle with brain cancer.

Bob was a gentleman of the old school; quiet, respectful but with a wicked sense of humour. We are proud of his contributions to the community as Master Mariner, Mason and Councillor but most of all as a husband, father, grandfather and friend. He has left a positive mark on all our lives and will be dearly missed.

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