Kiwi naval officer and businessman became a star of Aussie TV quiz shows
‘Idon’t understand what it’s all about,’’ quipped Michael Muschamp, when perusing a nephew’s PhD thesis years ago, ‘‘but I can tell you that there are three split infinitives in the introduction.’’ New Zealander Muschamp, who has died aged 88, had an exceptional brain, and a retentive memory that took him to victory on Australian TV quiz shows, including one where he virtually gave the title to his opponent by insisting, correctly, that her ‘‘wrong’’ answer was right.
Michael Richard George Muschamp had an adventurous life, from prize-winning student to teenage sailor, wartime naval officer, aide-decamp to the New
Zealand governorgeneral, business executive, political candidate, and freelance journalist who wrote for more than 30 years on everything from wine and travel to profiles and obituaries.
Age and illness had rendered him comparatively quiet in recent years, a change from the usual feisty persona who materialised regularly in emails to friends and acquaintances.
Born in England of an Australian mother and father, he grew up in New Zealand after his parents moved there when he was five. His father Cecil, vicar of St Michael’s in Christchurch, became bishop of Kalgoorlie in 1950.
Michael’s intellect shone early – he won a scholarship to Christ’s College, then at 18 he joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a cadet and was soon on his way to the Royal Navy College in Dartmouth, England. There, he boarded the training cruiser HMS Devonshire, where he recalled ‘‘we scrubbed decks and painted the ship’s sides, funnels and anything that didn’t move or wasn’t brass’’.
They sailed to exotic ports – in Kingston, Jamaica, he copped a week’s suspension after what he termed a ‘‘social solecism’’. As one of the crew hosting a party on board, he asked a local if he would care for ‘‘a White Lady’’, a popular cocktail at the time. He was reported to the commander for insolence.
He later joined HMS Jamaica, a cruiser in the Far East fleet. In author Michael Hickey’s book The Korean War: The West Confronts Communism, Lieutenant Muschamp’s account of a clash with six enemy craft is featured, counting four sunk in rapid succession. The Jamaica then came under fire itself. Ten were killed, or wounded, ‘‘the first British casualties of the Korean War’’.
Some time later, it was Muschamp’s duty to take a motorboat out to investigate some odd bundles floating in the tide. They were corpses, shot in the back of the head, hands tied behind backs, and thought to be American pilots who had been taken prisoner.
In 1952, Muschamp was appointed naval aide-de-camp to New Zealand governorgeneral Sir Willoughby Norrie. Thus, he found himself the only Kiwi in a household of English men and women. At age 26, he was head-hunted by Fisher & Paykel, starting off on the assembly line, in spare parts, sales, purchasing, engineering and research. He eventually became manager of its London branch for five years.
But first came wedding bells. In March 1958, he sought leave to fly to England to marry Stella Wood (to whom he referred affectionately during his later life as ‘‘the War Office’’). Both Michael’s and Stella’s fathers were bishops, so the wedding was a grand occasion at St Albans Cathedral, near London, marred only by the reception marquee being destroyed by fire before the guests arrived.
The Muschamp marriage produced four children – Virginia, Amanda, Katharine and Timothy – and the family eventually settled in Australia. Muschamp took his giant brain to the TV quiz shows, first to The Money Makers, hosted by Philip Brady.
He won the final but challenged a ruling that his opponent had answered incorrectly. ‘‘She was right,’’ said Muschamp, an opinion the adjudicator confirmed, and they taped the show again to give the opponent the prize instead.
Some years later, he made the final of Sale of the Century, where the same woman who lost-then-won on The Money Makers was his opponent. This time, Muschamp won the lot – Glomesh purses, holiday, pool table and a Mercedes. He was subsequently employed as a judge on Ford Super Quiz, with Bert Newton.
The quiz champ also ran for parliament in 1972 but, as he was the candidate for the Australia Party and the seat was blue-ribbon Liberal, the bid fell on barren ground.
Muschamp was well-loved and respected by family who valued his hard-won wisdom. As one nephew recalls: ‘‘It was Uncle Michael who explained to me as a teenager the importance of equality of opportunity – and the impossibility of ensuring equality of outcome.’’
Muschamp gave me a copy of his memoirs some years back, so it seems appropriate to let the dear fellow have the final word in his mortal salute. ‘‘Was I a rogue, a vagabond or a pristine example of the human race? Or, as is the case, a pretty ordinary chap who, from time to time, did some quite un-ordinary things?’’
Yes, Mr Muschamp, the latter.– Lawrence Money/Nine