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The Memorial Hall in the township of Kaikoura was crowded for the funeral of Geoff Gordon, on a bitterly cold day when the Peninsula was lashed by a southerly gale and lancing rain. Many of the people in the congregation had the ruddy, weatherbeaten faces of farmers and fishermen; others had the paler complexions of town and city folk. Sally, Geoff's daughter, delivered the eulogy and the Hall sounded to the roar of hymns that are perennial favourites with Old Collegians, such as "Jerusalem" and "Who Would Valiant Be?" The coffin was home made, with rope handles.
[Image omitted. See PDF]Geoff was born in Taumaranui in 1923, the second son of a lawyer and businessman, a veteran of Gallipoli who died on Mount Ruapehu when Geoff was nine years old. The family was tramping around the crater when the father slipped and fell. He lay, stretched over a rock in the crater lake until he died, hours later. There was no rope that could reach him. Mr Gordon had been a community-minded man and the people of Taumaranui raised funds for a memorial, but Mrs Gordon chose that the money be used to help with the education of her sons, John, Geoffrey and Robin. They moved to Christchurch, where the boys attended Christ's College.
John enlisted in the Royal Navy and he returned to the school on his final leave, dressed in his uniform, to say goodbye to his siblings. He died when he was the commander of the PT boat, in a brush with E-boats in the English Channel.
Geoff asserted his stay at Christ's College was undistinguished, but he was the hooker in the First XV. He recounted that, on his final day at school when he was cycling out of the gate, he met a master who said,...