Vale - David Iggulden, a 'Giant' of the 1987-88 Re-Enactment of the First Fleet
Gary L. Sturgess
7/24/20261 min read
I have just learned of the passing this week of David Iggulden, a merchant mariner, adventurer and author who frequented my favourite café in Wentworth Falls. We were both regulars and had a nodding acquaintanceship, but it is only now that I learn of his remarkable life, and the huge contribution which he, an immigrant from England, made to Australia’s bicentenary in the face of indifference and, indeed, hostility from the nation’s political leaders.
When I rang Jonathan King (a descendant of Philip Gidley King, the 2nd Lieutenant on HMS Sirius, aide-de-camp to Governor-elect Arthur Phillip on the First Fleet, and subsequently the third Governor of NSW), who was the driving force behind the convoy of tall ships which undertook that same voyage in 1987-88, he described Iggulden as ‘the giant of the First Fleet re-enactment’. He was the first person to contact King after his announcement of the project in January 1978, and ultimately became the communications director for the voyage. They remained close friends, authoring several books together.
There will be a memorial on a tall ship on Sydney Harbour on the 7th of August, which would have been Iggulden’s 77th birthday, and I will publish a proper tribute following that event and some further research into his remarkable life.
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