Oldest living All Black
. . . shares his World War II memories . . .
Tomorrow’s Anzac Day commemorations mark something of a return to normality after two years of Covid affected how New Zealanders and Australians marked the day. In today’s Sunday
Star-Times we look at how the day shaped two nations, we talk to a World War II veteran, and an author talks about preserving the Anzac story for future generations.
The best piece of rhubarb sponge Roy Roper ever ate belonged to Winston Churchill.
It was 1944 and Roper, who would later become an All Black, and 19 other young men from the Royal New Zealand Navy were on their way to the UK for officer training.
They had boarded the RMS Queen Mary in New York along with 13,000 American troops, Churchill, then Prime Minister of Britain, and quite a few ‘‘other big wigs.’’ Despite its high profile cargo, Roper, 98, says he wasn’t worried about coming under attack.
‘‘It was too fast for submarines. And then we picked up escorts about 500 miles from Scotland.’’
During the voyage the Kiwis took turns on sentry duty along the hallway where Churchill had his cabin.
At the end of the voyage the Queen Mary anchored just off the coast of Glasgow at which point Churchill boarded a lighter and went ashore.
‘‘As soon as the armed marine had gone from outside his cabin door my mate and I went down into his room to have a look around and there was a lot of breakfast on the table.’’
With so many people on board Roper and his fellow sailors were always hungry, so they grabbed a plate and took off. Turned out to be a rhubarb sponge.
Roper eventually disembarked at Glasgow and ended up in Plymouth, in the south of England.
In December 1944 the trainees spent three months’ sea time in Firth of Forth on the HMS Diomede.
Along the way ex-All Black Rod McKenzie, who was an army liaison officer in London, did ‘‘a great job of getting us away from service to play rugby’’.
Roper, a winger, played six games for the New Zealand Services XV in England in the 1944-45 season. He was also selected for a Combined Dominions team, but sea duties prevented him playing.
At the end of June 1945 he got his commission and became a sub-lieutenant. By then the war was over in Europe, but was still raging in the Pacific. So, Roper was posted to an Australian naval base.
But by the time he found a ship, Japan had surrendered, so he returned to New Zealand.
‘‘I had a lucky war.’’
And he has a lot of memories of it that cover the dining room table. A letter from Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Freyberg saying he was now a sub-lieutenant, photos, his navy pay book. Scrapbooks are good to ponder over now and again, he says. And to pass onto others in the family – his two sons, seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
Alongside the war memories is memorabilia of a different kind. Roper is also New Zealand’s oldest living All Black.
His All Blacks cap he was finally presented with in 2010 sits next to photos of the 1950s All Blacks team that beat the British Lions.
There are photos, telegrams, and scrapbooks with yellowing newspaper cuttings.
A Lions jersey, with its missing Welsh symbol, hangs over the back of a chair. His first All Blacks jersey, greying with age, hangs over another.
It was secondhand, he says. It has number 4 on the back – he was left wing, who now wears number 11.
Roper’s first All Blacks game was against Australia in 1949.
Captain of Taranaki, Roper and his team went south to challenge Otago in what was an unsuccessful Ranfurly Shield challenge. The Wednesday before Taranaki played Southland, Roper remembers.
‘‘I played a fairly good game, got a couple of tries. I didn’t know, but there was a New Zealand selector at that game, so after the game we were having a beer and a sausage roll wrapped up in a bit of bread and this guy came up to me and said they’d just announced the team to play the Aussies the following week. And he said ‘you’re in it.’ And that’s how I became an All Black.’’
He was ‘‘absolutely surprised.’’ The All Blacks were beaten, he says, not mentioning he scored New Zealand’s only try.
He played in three positions in his first game, which ‘‘was a bit unusual’’.
Altogether he scored three tries in five tests for the All Blacks, including the
series against the British Lions in 1950, which the All Blacks won three and drew one.
One memory is the third test in Wellington.
‘‘We won 6-3. I didn’t get a try, but I made the try they got. Just a matter of making a break and getting the ball out and getting the guy into position to score.’’
Felt good? He shrugs. ‘‘That was your job.’’
Another memory was the fourth test at Eden Park.
‘‘I couldn’t catch [Welsh winger] Ken Jones when he scored his try. I chased him three quarters the length of the field. He was an Olympic sprinter, and I’ve got a photo somewhere of me trying to tip his heels, but I couldn’t get there.’’
After the tour finished, so did Roper’s rugby career.
‘‘I was looking to build a new house. I had a new family. I’d changed my job, so everything was happening in 1950. I just gave rugby away. I couldn’t afford to keep playing.’’
But he continued to serve the game by being treasurer of the Taranaki Rugby Union for 20 years and was on the Rugby Park Committee for 30 years, got involved with ‘‘all the changes – grandstands, drainage’’.
Looking back he reckons Beauden Barrett is the best Taranaki player he’s ever seen, and
nationally, Christian Cullen stands out. As does Richie McCaw.
Roper still follows the game, but failing eyesight makes watching a bit difficult. And there’s too many rucks and mauls.
‘‘I’ve written a few letters to the union giving my views where rugby could go over the years.’’ As for playing in the modern era, Roper reckons he would be too small. He was 72kg and 1.73 metres tall during his rugby career.
Roper suddenly jumps up and picks up his old jersey. He puts it on, joking he doesn’t get to wear it very often. He points to the Lions jersey.
‘‘I don’t know who pinched the emblem. It’s a mystery.’’
At the end of the Lions tour he gave his jersey to an Irishman, but didn’t get one back. But, a couple of years later a coach at the New Plymouth Old Boys Club, an Irishman, was going to Ireland, so Roper asked him to collect his jersey. He did, but it was missing the Welsh emblem.
Roper said he was lucky enough to play with some good teams and score a few tries.
But, he says, he should have been able to stay in the army with his ‘‘army cobbers’’. If he had Roper would have gone to Egypt in 1944. He was called up in 1942, when he was 18, but then discharged in 1943, because he was underage .
He was called up again aged 20 – but by that time he’d joined the navy.
On Queen’s Birthday weekend, 1944, Roper played rugby for Taranaki against Whanganui.
‘‘It was a morning game. In the afternoon I was on a train to join the navy.’’