Loved, respected in community
TOM Dungey was a man who gave to his country and his community.
West Otago Returned and Services Association secretary Horace McAuley, of Tapanui, said the town had lost not only one of its two remaining World War 2 veterans but one of its most loved and respected citizens.
He was involved in a range of community organisations, from the local RSA and fire brigade to the rugby club, bowling club and businessmen’s association.
Mr Dungey, who died in Tapanui in March aged 95, was born in Moeraki in 1922, the youngest in a family of nine boys. His parents, Joshua and Margaret Dungey, were farmers who leased land in the area.
After leaving school at 13, Mr Dungey worked on local farms. These included Moeraki Estate, where he drove a large team of horses.
At 18, he joined the NZ 2nd Scottish Battalion and entered the army camp at Forbury Park, following in the footsteps of two older brothers who had also enlisted.
From 1943, he served in the 21st Battalion, training in the desert in Egypt and fighting in Italy. The young sergeant took part in the Battle for Cassino, one of the most brutal and costly battles involving New Zealand forces in World War 2, and was mentioned in dispatches.
However, he also made the most of any opportunity for adventure. While recovering from a shrapnel wound to his left leg, he and some others went to a nearby town for a ‘‘vino’’ — an act that resulted in them spending a night in an Italian jail and their rehabilitation time being shortened.
While waiting for a ship home after the war ended, he and his friends spent several months travelling around Europe, gaining access across borders by saying they were an advance party for a rugby tour.
Rugby was one of his great loves: he started playing while at Moeraki Primary School and later played flanker for the Kelso seniors.
His 25year involvement with West Otago rugby included periods as president and secretarytreasurer of the Tapanui Rugby Club, of which he was also a life member.
He coached the Tapanui senior side for nine years, guiding it to three wins and numerous placings in the West Otago competition during the 1950s and 1960s when country rugby was particularly strong. He also coached and managed the West Otago juniors.
Tapanui team member and long time friend Harold Hancox said Mr Dungey focused on fitness, teamwork and discipline: one of his strongest memories was of the side going into a final against Roxburgh without one of its best players because he had attended only one of the two practices that week. Fortunately, Tapanui won anyway.
Mr Dungey had arrived in West Otago in 1946, after returning from the war and taking a job as a forestry cadet at New Zealand’s first plantation forest, Dusky Forest near Heriot. He later became production manager at the Statecraft mill at Conical Hill, a Governmentowned sawmill that employed more than 300 workers.
He met his future wife, Joan Brook, at a dance in the Crookston Hall in 1947 and celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary with her in 2012.
A life member of the Tapanui Volunteer Fire Brigade, he received a gold star for 25 years’ service, was deputy chief fire officer for many years and instrumental in securing funding for construction of the existing fire station.
In the past, the fire brigade was run by the local borough council, Mr Hancox said. Realising that the deadly Ballantynes fire and commission of inquiry would lead to the fire service being nationalised, he and two others had plans drawn up for a new station and called tenders. When the foundations were in, they handed it over to the new national organisation, which then had to finish it.
Also active in the West Otago RSA club and association, he filled most positions including president, secretary, treasurer and honorary welfare officer.
On Anzac Day, he was parade marshall and read the Ode; this year he had wanted to say the verse in Maori and had begun learning it with the help of his friend, John Atkins.
He received the RNZRSA gold star in recognition of his outstanding service to the RSA and, along with two others, was regularly invited to talk of his war experience at local schools.
Mr Dungey recognised that he and the other veterans would not be around forever and that that part of New Zealand’s history needed to be remembered, Mr McAuley said.
‘‘He had a tremendous way of speaking to young people. He didn’t speak over them. He spoke with them and showed a huge interest in what they were doing . . .’’
In 2014, he returned to Italy with his friend Bill Roulston, of Tapanui, and 37 other veterans to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino. On his 92nd birthday, he finally got to visit the grave of his older brother, Jack, who was among the 343 New Zealanders killed at Cassino. After leaving New Zealand for the war, the two brothers never saw each other again as they were in different battalions.
Mr Hancox, who often accompanied Mr Dungey to games at Carisbrook, said he was ‘‘the nicest guy you could possibly meet and always on for a bit of fun’’.
They first met in 1951 after a hunter had been shot in the Rankleburn Forest. Mr Hancox was in the stretcherbearing party which brought the injured man out, roped to an old door and wrapped in blankets. When they emerged from the bush at 2am, Mr Dungey was waiting in an ambulance. The vehicle was officially for the Conical Hill workforce but he often used it for emergencies in the wider West Otago area.
A pastpresident of the Tapanui Businessmen’s Association, which started the town’s Christmas parade, he was also president, secretary, treasurer and selector of the Tapanui Bowling Club. Always focused on the positives, he changed bowling hands when arthritis prevented him delivering the ball with his right hand, practising until he was just as accomplished using his left.
A favourite saying was ‘‘If you can’t think of anything good to say about somebody, don’t say anything at all’’ — a motto Mr McAuley says he lived by.
‘‘Tom’s legacy will forever be based around his involvement and contribution, especially in the interest and encouragement he showed toward our youth.’’
Mr Dungey is survived by his four children, six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.