| Having trouble reading this newsletter? Visit https://ymlp.com/archive_gesgjgm.php | |||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
June 16, 2022 |
|||||||||||
|
Newsletter for the
Offshore Residents of Pittwater, Australia - Volume 23,
Issue 1179
We acknowledge and pay our
respects to the Traditional Custodians of
Pittwater, as well as our Indigenous readers
|
|||||||||||
 ValeDAVID LAHM14/4/1942 - 31/5/2022David Hartmut Lahm, a former Scotland Island resident who never lost his connection with the offshore community, has died aged 80.Dave, otherwise known as ‘Lahmy’, grew up in Hunters Hill amidst a bohemian scene of artists and writers. Dave’s grandfather, a watchmaker and jeweller, had come to Australia from Estonia when Dave's father, Hartmut 'Hottie' Lahm, was 16. Hottie was a talented, flamboyant and successful commercial artist/cartoonist for the papers of the day: his portrait, painted in 1973 by Nora Heysen, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Dave’s beloved mother, Joan, was, besides her work in real estate, an accomplished painter and famed cook.
Following schooling at Woolwich School, Hunters Hill and St Andrews Cathedral School, Sydney, Dave was offered a Qantas cadetship as a flight engineer. But Dave declined the offer since his family didn’t approve. Instead he went into a ‘proper' job in banking. Through an art school friend Dave met the beautiful young June Morison in 1965. They married in 1967 and honeymooned by driving to Melbourne in one of the first Mini Coopers. This car, with its grey and red trim, was Dave's other early obsession. Dave and June lived for a while in an old schoolhouse in Gordon, but in 1970 headed off for halcyon days in London, travelling there via Tahiti, Easter Island, South America, Mexico, the USA and Canada. Settling in a flat in Wimbledon, Dave began a new career at the Engineering firm TT Boughtons and Sons, while June worked for the British Potters Society gallery in Soho and later the British Crafts Council gallery in Covent Garden. Lifelong friends were made, gathering at their local pub, the 'Hand in Hand’ on the edge of Wimbledon Common. Dave and June also explored the UK in their royal blue Fiat 500. With the sunroof open, life was good and carefree. Journeying home for just £50 under Gough Whitlam’s Returning Australians scheme, Dave and June bought a block of land above Scotland Island's Cargo Wharf in 1974 for $10,000. They had a Bisley Kit home built on the block and moved onto the island in 1975. Dave and June went their separate ways in 1977, but both stayed on the Island they loved and remained close friends. June Lahm still lives on the island, although now in a house on its northern shore.
Lahmy was equipment officer, deputy captain and long-term member of the Scotland Island Rural Fire Brigade. He was also involved with the Woody Point Yacht Club from its very early beginnings. At Beashels, he dynel sheathed the old putt putt, ‘Alex’, which he bought off Graham Duff. He also painstakingly restored the ‘Corella’, winning the Huntington Cup with John and Phil Hebden and Richard Leplastrier. In the 1990s an old work mate brought Dave over to International Seal Ltd in Mona Vale, where his specialist knowledge saw him traversing the globe providing O-rings and seals for the likes of Concord and Collins-class submarines. Naturally, some of his enduring tales were of his regular London to New York flights on Concord, with privileged access and chin–wags with the pilots in the cockpit. Good times. In 2005 a different Island captivated Dave and he moved to Tasmania, purchasing and restoring an original seaman's cottage in Arthur's Circus, Battery Point, Hobart. There he sailed with friends in old wooden boats on the Derwent.
Living in a coal mining area, restoring an old house and extremes of weather contributed to a chronic lung condition, which in recent years left him less active. As he would often say, he was increasingly ‘Kangaroo Edward’. Following a poor recovery from a lung procedure in Sydney in March, and contracting Covid19 whilst in rehab care, Dave died in Lake Macquarie Private Hospital in Newcastle on the morning of 31 May. David Lahm was one of a kind and is remembered as a great Scotland Island eccentric. An elegant gent with a ready wit, a pocket full of rhyming slang, a kind and generous heart and a humorous, romantic’s take on life, he was well loved. He will be dearly missed by the many friends, colleagues, acquaintances and admirers whom he gathered along the way through his extraordinary, rich and roaming life. Fair seas and clear skies, Lahmy.  David Lahm: a celebration of his lifeThose who knew Dave are invited to raise a glass to a life well lived, share stories or just listen and reminisce at the: TOP ROOM -
WATERFRONT STORE
CHURCH POINT 3.30 - 7pm, Saturday 23 July For catering purposes please RSVP by 10 July to Emmie Collins: 0405 330 781  Missed out on a previous newsletter? Past newsletters,
beginning May 2000, can be found and read at https://ymlp.com/archive_gesgjgm.php.
To ContributeIf you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please send an e-mail to the editor (editor@scotlandisland.org.au).Subscription InformationTo subscribe or unsubscribe, go to: http://www.scotlandisland.org.au/signup.
The Online Local Contacts GuideClick HERE to loadPittwater Offshore Photo Gallery |
|||||||||||
| |
