Lesley Milne, Past President of the Legion of Rowers spoke at Brian’s funeral on Friday 4th October 2024.
Good afternoon everyone – I would like to acknowledge Brian’s 40+ years of dedicated service to the Legion of Rowers.
Most of you are aware, that the Legion of Rowers began in Auckland in 1950 – as a support group for rowing in general. These days we have a wider view than Auckland – our main activities revolve around master rowers with an additional focus on financially assisting our NZ Junior U19 representatives.
Brian was elected onto the executive committee of the Legion of Rowers in 1982. He was President several times over and was a Life Member. He was always an enthusiastic participant and only recently retired from the executive as the outgoing Immediate Past President in 2023. Having retired from the Committee he was still an active, contributing member right up until May of this year when he assisted as a commentator at the Legion’s North Island Masters Championships. His ongoing guidance around the committee table was always appreciated, very often developing into strong, lively debate!
As mentioned, the Legion has long had an interest in regattas for master rowers, the first being held on the Tamaki River in 1985, before moving to Hamilton Lake and these days, more frequently held at Lake Karapiro twice a year.
You will have heard already about Brian’s legendary involvement at Karapiro regattas. I have vivid memories of him at Hamilton Lake masters regattas, where, often as the Chief Starter, he would settle himself in for the day amongst the bullrushes on the side of the lake with his loud hailer, radio and flags. Lining masters crews up at Hamilton Lake was never easy, but Brian would try to keep his composure, often joking with the crews as they struggled to line up, depending on their skill level and more particularly when there were high winds – as one former competitor recalled – he always made cheeky comments but called people by name, which I always appreciated!
He seemed to particularly enjoy being behind a microphone, cajoling crews into place, giving people cheek, always in a lighthearted and goodnatured manner.
These early Legion masters regattas on Hamilton lake were never serious, at least as far as Brian was concerned- (I’m not so sure about the rowers!) so there was always lots of laughter as umpires and rowers alike would sometimes run aground or veer crookedly into the weeds on the side of the lake. I do remember one time when Brian was being ferried from the start in an umpire’s boat and he just happened to be standing on the wrong side of the boat when they ran aground, causing Brian to fall overboard, much to the delight of the onlookers! A very wet, bedraggled Brian climbed onto dry land amidst much laughter.
Having come off the water after a day at the Start, wherever we were, on Hamilton Lake, Lake Pupuke or Lake Karapiro, he would join Wybo and Russell at the BBQ, cooking the sausages and selling the beer. He was always intent on people having a good time.
Brian certainly gave long and dedicated service to the Legion of Rowers – we will certainly miss his sage advice and guidance.
