“I never stopped doing community work – I have helped the Salvation Army, the Cancer Council, the Heart Foundation, the Red Cross, ex-services legion, and was President and Chairman of The Lion’s Club. My daughter says that I have passed on to them the ability to care for others – which makes me proud…

I brought my kids up to understand that childhood is an apprenticeship and the more they learn during their apprenticeship the better they will achieve.

My career? I went into the department of the army and from there I transferred to the diplomatic court. I applied for the job in foreign affairs, it was in external affairs, and they posted me in Moscow because of my military background. My daughter was born in Helsinki as a result of that, we called her a little Finn. It was the time of the communist regime and you weren’t allowed to go places, to get to see the ballet or the red army choir you had to apply and if your embassy wasn’t in the favour you wouldn’t get approved to see it. I went to Taiwan, which was then the Republic of China, in ’72 just before Whitlam got in. So I got there just in enough time to close the post and open the post in China.”