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Active Service.
Dennis Livingston. What a guy. What an active member of the yachting community. What a contribution. Yep. He's now retired. A whole bunch of material came out of a recent Testimonial Dinner held for him. The Committee's of both the ORCV and RMYS, got together and turned on the bash.
Now I always loved this shot of Dennis working two phones. His active service had seen him rise to the rank of Major, in the realm of Army Signals and Comms. A Taswegian by birth and gee, does he have some fantastic tales of his early days in Hobart. He recounted some to me just last year, as we trundled down the Derwent to catch Ocean Skins as she in turn, came up for the M2HE win. Dennis began his National Service in 1957 and then joined as regular soldier in 1958, where he went into Signals. In 1961 he was off to the Officer Cadet School at Portsea and then graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant in December of that year.
Next it was off to Queensland to learn about strategic communications, with extended training in Germany with the British Army. In 1966 Dennis went to Singapore and put all that training into action, the ‘Confrontaqtion’ with Indonesia, where he was in Borneo, performing tactical communications in the last stages of the conflict.
It was back to Melbourne in 1968, as a Captain by now and into the Special Forces (commando) communications, which Dennis refers to simply as, ‘quite different’. You get the picture...
1969 was Darwin, where he was involved in building an antenna and field and tropical training for my troop. He proudly informs us that ‘some of it even survived Cyclone Tracy!’ Naturally in that era, Vietnam was on the cards and for 1970, Dennis was based in Saigon at the Australian HQ, as part of the communications staff attending to planning and operations. Returning home in 1971, he was promoted to Major and came back to 126 Signal Squadron (commando stuff), as Squadron Commander in 1972-3. ‘The best job I ever had!’
Befitting a man who spent his career in signals and comms, Robin Hewitt presented Dennis with a chronometer and barometer set during the course of the evening.
From that time, there was a posting to the Department of Foreign Affairs and he was seconded to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, as the Communications Officer for 1973 to ‘77. Interestingly, this included visits to all provincial police HQ, for inspections and maintenance of equipment, as well as some training. ‘I went to some lovely places, as well as some dodgy border posts and even to Bougainville, just before it got really nasty’, Dennis cooly comments and all I can say is, Lucky boy!!!
During this time he was involved in supporting the police field force (read, riot squads), when fighting broke out in the highlands, ‘which happens each year after the coffee harvest, when ancient rivalries surface’, Dennis tells me. It also included preparation of equipment and people for a Royal Visit in September 1975, when Independence was declared, which is ‘the only time I've seen the Australian flag lowered and another raised in its place.’
The PNG government struck a commemorative medal for all who were there during the prescribed period. 'Unfortunately, I missed out.' What Dennis doesn’t mention, however, is that as a mark of his service, a very grateful Police Commissioner had a citation prepared and the medal was awarded on the Prime Minister's special list. ‘I regard that like an AM or MBE’, he said.
Dennis and co came back to Australia and a training job in 1977, an administrative position with the Army's engineering development establishment then followed. He resigned his Commission in 1979 with ‘the children at high school, little chance of further promotion and the possibility of pursuing another career.’
George Shaw presents Dennis with his picture.
Dennis had a year or so with a multinational diesel engine manufacturer, then got retrenched. ‘Big shock’ is how Dennis puts it after his military career. I got into administration with a benevolent society, did well, then out of there to a position with a military, judicial and academic wear supplier. Would you believe it? I got retrenched just short of ten years!’
RMYS then took me on as race administrator/principal race officer, following the forced retirement of our doyen, a certain Jack Balmain. ‘The trick here is that I wrote the job specification the year before, as part of the sailing committee, so I got my own job’ says Dennis with a smile. 'I carried this through until the 1999 World Championships, where RMYS had the Lasers. That was 150 boats and then came the Masters, which was 250 of them!’
Dennis was so chuffed, he got to his feet.
Dennis left in 2000 to make time for the Sydney Olympic Games, where he had a job on the race management team and was based on the Harbour every day. ‘Doesn't get any better than that’, Dennis chimed in with.
Helene and I went caravanning for 2001 and on our return, I was approached by the late Gary Clapham (who was then Commodore of the ORCV), who invited me to 'apply for my job'. Pauline Lister was the Office Manager at that time. In October of 2001 he arrived at the ORCV, which was then in temporary rooms in South Melbourne and then moved to even more temporary premises in a garage, while our own place was being painted and walls, wiring etc were fitted. ‘All of thiswas whilst being in the middle of preparing for the 2001 Melbourne to Hobart and Melbourne to Devonport races' (this was the last time that it went to Devonport, BTW).
'Since then, I've been at all race destinations at one time or another, probably most often to Launceston and I seem to be able to run the Cock of the Bay race.' Oh yes, he certainly does team…
Dennis helping out in the 2009 MWS - the pic presented to him on the night - © Steb Fisher.
During all this time, Dennis was a race officer at RMYS on a voluntary basis and helped out, on-water, with the ORCV’s long running, Melbourne Winter Series. He was the Jury Secretary for Sail Melbourne, World Championships and Geelong Week events, too. ‘The low point for me was RMYS’s Big Bay Race in 1999, when Spirit of Downunder lost a man overboard. I was the race officer and was given a pretty hard time in the Coroner's Court.’
Now what all that doesn’t get into is that Dennis is considered by all he came across, as good to work with and his very highly respected at all the places/clubs we go to, like the Tamar YC, King Island BC, PortFairy YC and so on. He is methodical, clear and has a wealth of knowledge lots of people (especially me) tap into. It also does not get into the fact that he and Helene started at the ORCV in 1980, helping out Ken Black who was trying to do it all on his own. ‘We came at Christmas each year to run the race information centre continuously while any boat was still at sea. That continued until about 1999, when the Internet first got going’, Dennis explained.
Commodore George Shaw shows the other guests what had got Dennis smiling so much. Helene Livingstone on the left of frame and ORCV Committee Member, Marissa McManus on the right.
In his so-called retirement, he’s keen to get Helene back to touring and hit the road for marvelous places like the Southwest of WA, Maatsuyker Island and Bathurst Harbour and a little closer to home, move home, actually, so that they can be a bit closer to their grandchildren. Helene will no doubt approve of all that…
‘Personally, I’ll spend a bit of time with charity work, Vision Australia in particular, as I believe that loss of sight is one of the greatest disabilities one can experience. In terms of yachting, there’ll be a bit more jury work and still some race management’ (PS. That was a ‘some’, he reminded me ever so quickly). Dennis also serves on YV’s Race Officers’ Committee and he’s also partial to being involved in team racing events. ‘I like that racing format, as it is one of the few sailing events suitable for spectators.’
‘You know, I’ll be pursuing yacht racing too, as in actually racing every so often! Sure you know the problem, John.’ Quite so, quite so… Dennis has sailed in some interesting venues along the way, as well. He’s been on canals and gravel pits in Holland, the South China Sea in Vietnam and Borneo, those three great years in PNG with Papua Yacht Club (before it became the Royal Papua YC) and also with the Army Sailing Club wherever he could.
The motto of the Officer Cadet School is ‘Loyalty and Service’, something I know Dennis has kept in his mind all these years. So, in the end, fear not. For whilst he’s retiring from active service in the yachting community and the ORCV, he's going to keep a presence by collating, gathering and sorting our club's archives and make them more accessible. And with his knowledge of the scene, he certainly is the man for the job.
Cheers mate - and thanks for your help.
The guests at Dennis’ recent Testimonial Dinner, held at RMYS. Reading from left to right... Simon Dryden, Angus Fletcher, Noel May, Alistair Hart, Robin Hewitt, Don Fraser, Bill Maude, Brian McDermott, Marissa McManus, Ian Court, Bob Tanner, Pauline Lister, Bill Trueman, Neil Butler, Neville Rose, Tim Wagland, Linda Goldsmith, Janet Dean, Heather Simpson, Stuart Tait, Amanda Wakeham, Sue Masey, Ken Simpson, Terry Hill and George Shaw. Apologies: Mark Coppens, Ian McKenzie and Ian Lodewyckx. Front and Centre: Dennis and Helene Livingston.
Below - just a bit closer, to see those faces...
By John Curnow
