State Sections

President

Mr John Carlyon

13 Mitchell Street

Lawnton QLD 4501

Email pantomine@bigpond.com.au

Phone 07 32857395

Fax 07 32857870

Secretary

Mr Robert Lake

83 Bayview Road

Brighton QLD 4017

Email naa.sandgate@optusnet.com.au

Phone 07 3269 9763

Sub Section Postal Address

c/- Sub Section Secretary

Cricket Legends visit Sandgate Naval Association

The Sandgate Subsection of the Naval Association of Australia, (NAA) played host to cricket legend Bill Brown and his wife Barbara at a recent NAA members’ luncheon at the Australian Naval Cadets’ establishment, T.S. Paluma, Shorncliffe. Barbara Brown was the guest speaker at the luncheon, speaking on the subject, “Cricket Personalities”.

At the outset, Barbara intimated that she did not know much about cricket and could never understand some of the terms describing where a fielder was positioned. For example, how could a person be fielding in the gully, when the ground was perfectly flat, or fielding at silly mid-on or in the covers. What did those terms mean?

It was evident as Barbara continued with her presentation that here was a person who probably knows far more of the technical aspects of the game than she was prepared to give herself credit. She certainly impressed her audience with her knowledge of people in the cricketing world and the contacts that she and her husband of 68 years, the legendary test batsman, Bill Brown have made through their involvement with cricket at the highest level in Australia and overseas.

Given Bill Brown’s membership of the famous Australian cricketing test side that toured England undefeated in 1948 and dubbed “The Invincibles”, under the captaincy of Sir Donald Bradman, it was inevitable that Bill and Barbara would be much sought after as “treasures” of Australian cricket test history. At 94 years of age and still fit, Bill Brown in fact is the oldest surviving test cricketer and one of only five surviving members of the 1948 Invincibles.

Barbara was able to recount the Brown’s close association with the Bradman family and gave the audience some poignant insights of Sir Don and his wife Jessie as people dealing with many of the challenges of daily life that others experience. However, “The Don” was no mere mortal in a cricketing sense, given his prodigious batting ability and his captaincy of the 1948 Australian touring cricket team to England, amongst other things.

Because of Bill Brown’s long association with cricket, not only as a player, but also subsequently as a national and Queensland State selector, he and Barbara have had a married lifetime associated with cricket. In giving a vote of thanks to Barbara Brown, NAA Subsection Publicity Officer, Trevor Rigby, observed how privileged the audience was to have been given these insights from someone who had been in the inner sanctum of the highest levels of international cricket in Australia and overseas. However, the uniqueness of these insights was that they were not only from a woman’s perspective, but also from the perspective of the wife and partner of one of Australia’s gentlemen of Australian test cricket, Bill Brown.

In closing the meeting and in recognition of the close association between the Cadets of T.S. Paluma and the NAA Sandgate Subsection, Sandgate President, John Carlyon, presented a shield to the Commanding Officer of T.S. Paluma, Lieutenant Colin Edgar. This shield will be an annual award to the Cadet judged to be the Highest Scoring Coxswain in the unit for that particular year, which is a prestigious, and much sought after award amongst the Cadets. In conclusion, the NAA Sandgate Subsection welcomes current and former members of the Royal Australian Navy and their partners to its meeting on the second Sunday of each month at the RSL Memorial Club, Keogh Street, Sandgate. For more information, visit www.navalassoc.org.au or call the Publicity Officer on 3862-8669.

THE SILENT SERVICE

Referred to as the Silent Service, the activities of the Navy often go unnoticed and unheralded. In the finest traditions of the Royal Australian Navy, members of the Naval Association of Australia, Sandgate Subsection, make a meaningful, but sometimes unnoticed contribution to local Bayside organisations.

At a recent NAA meeting of the Sandgate Subsection, President John Carlyon and Treasurer, John Schultz, presented a cheque of $1,000 to Sub-Lieutenant Merv Ward, representing the Naval Reserve Cadets of T.S. PALUMA, Shorncliffe. Sub-Lieutenant Ward, on receiving the donation, expressed the unit’s sincere appreciation of the donation, which he said will be used in T.S. PALUMA’s current project of raising funds for a new Safety Boat.

NAA Sandgate has a long association with T.S. PALUMA and is supportive of initiatives of the unit in its training and development of boys and girls from 13 to 21 years of age. In a similar vein, but for a more mature age group, the Naval Association of Australia is an ex-service organisation dedicated to the support and welfare of serving and retired members of the Royal Australian Navy. The Sandgate Subsection of the Naval Association meets at 11.00 a.m. at the RSL Memorial Club, Keogh Street, Sandgate on the second Sunday of each month.

The benefits of membership of the Naval Association for serving and retired RAN members are the opportunity of maintaining contact with service colleagues, attendance at service and social functions and most importantly, assistance with service and related entitlements. Current and former members of the Royal Australian Navy are welcome and encouraged to attend the monthly meetings of the Sandgate Subsection of the Naval Association of Australia.

As an ex-service organisation in this Bayside community, the NAA Sandgate Subsection is committed to assisting local, not-for-profit organisations which have similar philosophies to the Naval Association of Australia, such as the Naval Reserve Cadets of the local Training Ship, T.S. PALUMA. More comprehensive details of the Naval Association are available on the NAA website, www.navalassoc.org or by writing to the Subsection Publicity Officer, 8 McCallum Street, Carseldine, Qld, 4034.

© The Naval Association of Australia