Sir David and Lady Beattie

Sir David (then a Supreme Court Judge) presided over my admission to the Bar as a Barrister & Solicitor on 20 December 1972 in Wellington. In 1981 my late wife Sally & I attended the NZLS Law Conference in Dunedin. On the first evening we were talking to another young couple in the Dunedin Town Hall when Sir David approached us & (looking at our registration ID lapel badges) asked about us & where we were from. After we had been talking a little my wife (wanting to show an interest in this nice man who was showing an interest in us "nobodies") asked Sir David (who, of course, was not wearing a registration lapel badge) who he was. I was mortified. Sir David was delighted. He bashfully apologised to Sally for having not introduced himself (she was the only person in the room, I suspect, who didn`t know who he was) & for not wearing a name tag. Sally gracefully accepted the apology & asked him about his work as Governor General. I like to think he was delighted with this brief encounter with the love of my life who died just 7 years later. I think it was refreshing for him to find a rare circumstance in which he had some anonymity, albeit briefly.

In 1984, The Governor General of New Zealand, Sir David Stuart Beattie, GCMG, GCVO, QSO, QC (1924 – 2001) accepted the appointment of Patron of the New Zealand Command of the Legion of Frontiersmen and held this appointment until his death in 2001.