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The Otago Boys' High School Foundation
PO Box 11,
Dunedin, New Zealand
Tel +64 3 477 2546
Fax +64 3 477 5468
Congratulations to the following Old Boys who were honoured by HM The Queen in the New Year’s Day Honours List 2012. Thanks to the ODT, the Gisborne Herald and the Defence Force website for the use of some of their material below.
THE QUEEN’S SERVICE MEDAL
Dr Ralph Bradley Allen (1962-1966), Dunedin, services to conservation
Dr Ralph Allen spent 10 years driving the community effort to establish the Orokonui Ecosanctuary as a lifeboat for threatened native species, including several years working as a full-time volunteer.
Many people have commented on his ‘‘sheer determination’’ to make the project succeed, a description he does not disagree with. ‘‘I remember someone saying to me I would never raise the money to make it happen. I thought ‘bugger it, I will’,’’ the retired plant ecologist, conservationist and self-confessed environmental activist said.
Dr Allen (63) was a founding trustee of the Otago Natural History Trust which was established in 1983 to build a ‘‘giant aviary’’ in Dunedin to house native birds. The trust soon went into recess but was revived in 1999. Dr Allen was its long-time chairman but resigned last year because of ill health.
The 307ha ecosanctuary with its 8.7km-long predator proof fence was opened in 2009. So far, $5.5 million has been spent on capital developments, all funded without bank loans.
Asked about his honour, Dr Allen said it was a cliche, but it should be shared by the hundreds who had contributed. ‘‘I might have been the one who came up with the idea, but no-one does something like this on their own . . . And I couldn’t have done what I did without the support of my wife and family.’’
Dr Allen said he also hoped the honour also recognised some of his other ecological contributions over 40 years, including being part of the Save Aramoana campaign, Native Forest Action, and co-founding Dunedin’s first environment centre.
From the ODT 31 December 2011
Trevor Alan Beaton (1964-1966), Christchurch, services to education
After 15 years as Principal of Cobham Intermediate School in Christchurch, Trevor Beaton retired at the end of Term 1 2011. However, he’s not putting his feet up just yet. Trevor is involved in the harness racing industry as a breeder, based on his property at Aylesbury, where he is enjoying life on the farm and is in the process of putting down a track.
Keep an eye out for “Mirthful Mac” a 4 year old pacer which Trevor owns in partnership with Ross McKerchar, a former pupil of Trevor’s. “Mac” has had 13 starts for 1 win, 1 second and 4 third places to date.
Graeme Ernest Mudge (1946-1951), Gisborne, services to the arts.
IT can’t be easy to embarrass the generally-gregarious Graeme Mudge but, when visited at his home this week, the Gisborne artist looked just that. “I don’t know how this could happen when, really, all I’ve done is what I wanted to do,” he says of being named a Queen’s Services Medal (QSM) recipient in this year’s New Year honours list.
Acknowledged for his services to art, he says that aside from a diversion into teaching, he always planned to work full-time as an artist. However, it could have been different.
As a primary school student growing up in Otago during World War 2, he and his good chum Ted Bullmore (1933-1978) — also an artist — would spend hours drawing various models of fighter planes shooting each other out of the sky. But when Mr Mudge actually got the chance to learn to fly a plane in his teenage years, it did not work out. “I went up six times and six times I spewed,” he said.
So art school it was — the start of a life that has for nearly 50 years been lived in Gisborne where the artist’s paintings, sculptures and murals are as much a part of the landscape as the landscape itself. Though a little bemused at his appointment, he says it is important that the arts be acknowledged, “and I hope it will be good for Gisborne, too. Perhaps I was selected because I have spent my life painting ordinary people and ordinary things. What I have provided is people’s art for the people.
From The Gisborne Herald 31 December 2011
THE NEW ZEALAND DISTINGUISHED SERVICE DECORATION
Sqn Ldr Keith Murray Bartlett (1989-1993), Auckland, RNZAF
After leaving OBHS, Keith Bartlett completed a Honours degree in Phys Ed and most of a Human Nutrition degree at Otago before joining the RNZAF in 1998. He completed pilot training in 2001 and after being in the Strike Wing until its abolition began flying P-3K Orions. During an initial 4 year tour he had 2 deployments to the Middle East and then returned home to instruct at the Pilot Training Squadron before returning to No 5 Squadron in 2008, to again fly Orions. Shortly after this Keith (by now a Squadron Leader) was posted to the Orion P-3 Systems Upgrade Project in Greenville Texas. At the time of the posting, he had no time to qualify as an Orion Qualified Flight Instructor. His deployment was continually extended due to unforeseen aircraft flight performance issues. These challenges required flight testing well beyond the scope, complexity and duration of the original flight test programme.
With no formal training and minimal preparation, he was also required to develop and verify flight deck instrumentation and automation procedures, train the flight deck crew and manage systems engineers and operators conducting mission systems integration testing onboard the modified P-3K2 aircraft. These were development testing events that a senior Qualified Flight Instructor would be unlikely to encounter during the entire span of a career. Squadron Leader Keith Bartlett’s contribution was instrumental to the successful completion of the P-3K2 aircraft project.
Adapted from www.nzdf.mil.nz
Lt-Cmdr Simon Campbell Griffiths (1988-1991), Auckland, RNZN
A former Dunedin man says he is honoured to be recognised for a part of his naval service that has been the ‘‘absolute highlight’’ of his career so far. Lieutenant-commander Simon Griffiths is on leave after handing over command of offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington early this month and before he takes a promotion to his next position as commander of corporate services early in 2012.
Lt-cmdr Griffiths was born in Gore and attended OBHS after moving to Mosgiel at the age of 13.
Speaking from Auckland, he said to receive the honour for his time in command of Wellington, which had been the highlight of his naval career so far, and on the eve of his 20th anniversary with the navy, was particularly special. Lt-cmdr Griffiths led the ship through its introduction to service trials and readiness evaluations, culminating in the navy’s first operational deployment to the Antarctic for 40 years, in February. While there was much historical information on operations in the area, there was no practical experience in operating a vessel like HMNZS Wellington or up-todate knowledge of ice navigation in the area. While the ship was departing the Ross Sea, it spent 12 hours conducting an extensive, but ultimately fruitless, search for a recreational adventure vessel that put out a distress call soon after a significant storm.
Lt-cmdr Griffiths joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a midshipman in January 1992. He is married with three children under 4 and still has family in Gore and Dunedin.
From the ODT 31 December 2011
MEMBER – NEW ZEALAND ORDER OF MERIT
Terry Smith, United Kingdom, for services to New Zealand-United Kingdom relations
Whilst not an Old Boy of OBHS, Terry Smith deserves a mention in this article for his commitment to honouring the memory of one of our most distinguished former pupils.
Terry never met Sir Keith Park (1909-1910) . But as a historian with a father who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF), he had long known about the man whose tactical expertise and calm under pressure resulted in Britain fending off the Germans during the first major air battle of World War 2. Sir Keith, commander of Royal Air Force 11 Group, was in charge of defending London and the southeast.
Mr Smith, now chief executive of a London financial firm, has invested countless hours of his time, gathered support from more than 10,000 people and donated between $NZ1 million and $2 million of his own money to a campaign for a memorial to Sir Keith. He is in no doubt Sir Keith deserves to be recognised and remembered.
Adapted from the ODT 31 December 2011
