JOHN WALLACE
By Peter Stechman on 18th September 23
John & I go a long way back.
Our Fathers worked for over 40 years together at the NZ Loan & Mercantile, which became Dalgety’s. Our Friendship grew when we were both invited to join Mosgiel Rotary in the 70’s . John was our President in 83 – 84. Then District Governor Representative for the Dunedin Area in 1987. John was awarded the Paul Harris fellowship with a Diamond Pin . This is the Highest award in Rotary. He was made a Honourary Member of Mosgiel Rotary in 2021 after 50 years as a Rotarian.
John really enjoyed Rotary was always willing to put his undoubted Organizational & Practical skills into all Rotary Projects & Working Bees.
One of his duties was to supply the wine for our meetings on one such night when another member asked why he had chosen this unpalatable wine his reply was
“ it was at the right price and the label looked good” . The following are a list of some of the very successful.
Major Projects John was involved with:
- The forming of the 1st Probus Club in Mosgiel Notably the 3rd in NZ
- The Mosgiel illuminated sign above the Quarry at the entrance to Mosgiel
- The packing & delivery of Telephone books to every house in , Mosgiel & the Taieri Plain
- The Millennium Clock in the Gordon Road beside the old Post Office
- The Building of a Transportable House in a Section at the end of Doon Street. John did more than his fair share on this project and in his own words “I became a Qualified Carpenters
Labourer” - In 2010 John , Michael Lawlor & myself were the first committee to organize the very successful Mosgiel Rotary Book Sale
- In 1996 John & Jean went on a Rotary Exchange Trip to South Africa which just happened to co- inside with the LAST full All Black Tour They saw all the Games except one in Pretoria
- In 1976 Mosgiel Rotary was asked to organize & run a South Island Rotary Youth Leaders Award program Known as RYLA for youth between the ages 18 to 24. The week long camp was held at new Tautukau Youth camp John volunteered to Organize the Travel component for 70 odd Participants . When they all arrived on a wet Saturday afternoon in May at the Balclutha Railway station with a mountain of luggage John had organized 3 old School buses ( no Cars allowed) we had concerns that the buses would get us there. They did and a very successful week was had thanks to a lot of hard work undertaken by members
This is where we became seriously involved with Racing . John and 3 others formed a syndicate to purchase a race horse . John and Arthur Didham (who had been Hut mates during their time at CMT ) were charged with buying one. They bought a frail looking one in South Otago which was the but of quite a few jokes. This horse Syratt Royal went on to successfully win 3 races 2 at Riccarton and produce 6 progeny that would win 24 Races . John & Jean went to about 10 Melbourne Cups and one of his biggest thrills in Racing was one of his horses in 2008 ran third on Melbourne Cup Day. Another proud day for us when two of our Syndicate horses Tactical & Cangowest each won a race on Grand National Day . His biggest disappointment was when Narrative was beaten by a nose in the South Island Championship his hooves were first over the line but his nose wasn’t missed by a pencil line
John other involvement in the Thoroughbred Industry was when he on numerous occasions transported horses from Timaru to Kaula Lumpur by cargo ship . John was sole charge from Stable hand to Vet After a 20min induction course from his good friend Veterinarian Jim Murray
Jean accompanied John on at least 2 of these trips and this may have been the start of their love of Cruising
About 4 weeks ago Son Graeme and his son Cameron were with John at the Grange to watch his horse
“That’s Charming” win at Riccarton John proudly said that this would be his 60th win .