Awarded a UWA Student Guild Honorary Life Associate Membership

A trip down memory lane for the Governor, awarded a University of Western Australia Student Guild Honorary Life Associate Membership at a special UWA Student Guild Alumni Event.

The Governor, who served as Student Guild President in 1970, received the honour alongside former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia Robert French AC, who was guild treasurer the same year. Both were recognised for their outstanding and lasting contributions to the Guild.

The UWA Student Guild Alumni Event is the most prestigious event in the Guild’s calendar, bringing together members of the Alumni to celebrate just over 50 years since the laying of the Foundation stone of the Refectory.

The Governor said it was a wonderful honour to be recognised and receive the LIfe Associate membership, made even more so because it was in the company of the former Chief Justice.

“It was good to be in the company of many old friends who have been on the council at the time and to meet a lot of the new students who are a really fascinating, intelligent and diverse group,” said the Governor. 

“It brought back a lot of memories and we were very kindly treated by the students who presented us with biographies and pictures in a wonderful specially prepared booklet looking back at my time at UWA and the many memories made there.”

Photo – Kim Beazley (Snr), Kim Beazley (Jnr), Hugh Nelson, Christine Butler, Fay Ottlery and an unknown woman at a Moral Re-Armament Meeting, 1967 – Photo Ken Hotchkin collection (Battye Library)

“It was also an opportunity to correct the historical record as there was a view that I had laid the Foundation Stone for the new guild building but in fact the laying had been done by the students of the era in a move of great democratic spirit, who laid it with the assistance of about 18 kegs, and I recollect walking back across the grounds at the end of that particular day and seeing a lot of sleeping students after their hard work! It was an auspicious start to what is now the most magnificent complex,” said the Governor. 

The Governor praised the Guild for its valuable work over his time at UWA and in the years since.

“The guild of undergraduates has not been like student organisations elsewhere in the country. It has always had a major role in student amenities and life, always a level of popular support that others have not enjoyed.”

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