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Leonard Smith Gould was born on 26^th of October 1920 and died on the 11^th of November 2011. He was 91 years old. My grandfather, Len, was lucky, he lived a long and healthy life. He was always remarkably fit for his age and was able to kick a footy and chop wood well into his old age. In the last weeks of his life, he made the nurses chuckle when he told them he shouldn’t even really still be alive, given his age. Grandad’s humour is one of the unique things about him that were evident throughout his life. Photos of him as a young boy show a cheeky grin, a grin that he still gave others well into his old age. Grandad used humour a lot in his communication with other people. And communication was often quite difficult, as he was very deaf for a large part of his life. Grandad was also generally a quiet man and during his retirement he preferred reading, walking and working in the garden. But, that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a lot to talk about. I was always aware as a child that grandad had been a keen diver, and had dabbled in singing, dance and theatre. As a small child I would always love to tell my friends that grandad was the first Australian to do a three and a half somersault dive from the Princes Bridge in Melbourne. But I knew there was more to know, so in high school I did an assignment on grandad’s life. I wrote to grandad and asked for him to help. He replied with pages of notes and stories, which I used to write a short biography of his life as a young man. I still remember some of the highlights. 

My grandfather was born in Brunswick in 1920 to parents Vera and Alexander Gould. He had three siblings: an older brother Arthur, a sister Dulcie and a younger brother Lewis whom he grew up with in Melbourne. Grandad left school at 15 years of age to work and in his working life he did such varied jobs as a factory worker, leaflet delivery man and accountant. Though he left school early, he did return to study in night classes after he was married. Classes were often difficult because of his deafness so he ended up teaching himself through textbooks and eventually qualified as an Associate of the Australian Society of Accountants. Grandad was always very good with numbers and could do mental arithmetic very quickly in his head.

In his spare time whilst growing up, Grandad loved spending time at the Brunswick Baths. In fact, he called it his second home. It was here that he was spotted at the age of 13 by a diving champion named Dave Studeman who offered to teach him how to dive. Not long after that, Grandad was winning springboard diving championships and later, he excelled at high diving. He won the Victorian 10m platform title in 1947 and 1948. He had a group of good friends who would compete annually in diving competitions and every year for the launch of the Herald newspaper’s learn to swim campaign, he and his friends from the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association (VASA) would perform diving stunts from the Princes Bridge in Melbourne. In 1949, he was the first to do a 3 and a half somersault from this bridge, with a crowd of thousands looking on. In other years, newspapers documented the crowd gasping as grandad and his fellow divers performed crazy and humourous stunt dives from the bridge.  Grandad was club president of the Brunswick Swimming Club for 5 years and was known about the place as the man who would “try anything once”.

Grandad, met his wife, my grandmother Dee at the Baths in 1946. Grandad’s love of diving was so strong that he even defended his diving title on the day of his wedding to Dee in 1949. Funnily enough he came second that day and his best man Johnny Nilson came third. No sooner had they finished the event, than the car was at the baths to pick them up and Grandad and Johnny raced off to Scott’s church in the city for the wedding. This was such a good story that it made the papers! The title read “Lost dive, won Bride.” 

Grandad’s other love as a young man was music and theatre. He followed in the footsteps of his sister Dulcie and his younger brother Lewis in learning to sing and tap dance at the age of 19. When Grandad was drafted into the army at the age of 21 he played the tenor horn in the army band and toured playing to troupes and prisoner of war camps. As soon as he returned from the army in 1942 he started learning the drums. He would travel around Melbourne with them to perform. He would even take his drum kit on the tram with him to get to venues to play – which must have been quite funny for fellow passengers to see. Grandad also took radio announcing lessons and was the compere for the Glad Eye Revue Concert Party band. Grandad did some acting on stage with the SEC Drama Groups and also sang at dances in Brunswick, Coburg, Moonee Ponds, Heidelberg among other places. Grandad was known by some as a shy crooner and he had a very good voice. With his diving prowess and musical performances, Grandad was very well known and Granny once told me that it was impossible to go out without someone recognising him. Grandad was always active. He played ice hockey, water polo, football as a young man and in his retirement and later years loved playing golf and going to the football to support his beloved Carlton. When he was not doing these things he was working in the garden or going for long walks. 

Grandad and Granny were married for 62 years. They have three daughters Melanie, Mandy and Gigi. He also has three grandchildren: myself, Emma and Cameron. 

My memories of Grandad are largely of family outings over the years as well as spending time with them in Warrandyte. I remember going ice skating for my 19^th birthday with the family and grandad (at the age of 80 mind you), being the first out on the rink. He was going faster than any of us and even started skating backwards. Unfortunately he lost his footing at one point and fell hitting his head on the ice. Not to worry, he was soon back on his feet skating happily while we all were calling out to him to tell him he was bleeding on the ice! 

As a small child, my sister Emma and I loved it when we went to visit Granny and Grandad in Melbourne. Of course we always went shopping with Granny and mum, and had outings to the zoo and swimming pool. But was also had lots of time at home with them in Warrandyte. We would enjoy watching Grandad going about his tasks or just sitting and always whilst singing something quietly to himself. We could never tell what he was singing, but it was nice to think that he was still appreciating music even if he could no longer hear it properly. 

Now anyone who knew Len, probably knew of his love of typically-english food and in particular sweet cakes and fizzy drinks. Grandad’s favourite foods were a traditional Cornish pie and jam cream buns. He always had fresh white bread and lollies in the cupboard and always bought special treats for us when we came to visit. We had great fun with grandad making fizzy drinks with his soda maker and getting to choose our own concoction of flavours. He also dabbled in icecream making, which is the way to any child’s heart! We also had good fun with grandad, helping him do maintenance on his car. Well, I say helping but I don’t think I was of any help and my sister Emma was so small that her involvement meant swinging off grandad’s neck while he was on all fours trying to check the tyre pressure. 

Grandad has been deaf all my life, so long conversations were not easy. But we always knew grandad was pleased to see us with a big hug and kiss. Grandad was always very welcoming to my fiancé Will since he met him 11 years ago. He was very happy when Will and I got engaged and he was very determined to make it to our wedding. Unfortunately, time was not on his side for this, because we are getting married on Saturday. But, we really appreciated his struggle to see us on that day and he will be there in spirit.  

I would like to finish with a quick anecdote from Grandad himself that he wrote to me in 1999. 

“In the middle of July 1945 the day the war ended, everyone was in the city celebrating and I met some mates from the football club who talked me into diving off Princes Bridge at 1 o’clock in the morning in just a pair of football shorts. As I came up and started to swim out a river boat passed over the exact spot where I entered the water. If it had been a few seconds earlier, I might have dived down the funnel and you wouldn’t be reading this today.”

Thank you 

Jasmine Ferguson

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Fond Memories of Len by Linton Ferguson

Car Parking at Maze

Len notice someone directing a person standing high on the fence, directing someone through the maze, he thought they were directing Dee where to park.

TV talent show

Dee asks “Is he an Indian?”

Len “What do you mean is he in it, of course he is in it”

Chain sawing at Lorne

We had to remove a large tree. Len keen to help brought his chainsaw. A next door friend also brought his chainsaw. At one stage they were cutting from opposite sides and I was waving frantically to stop. Len was a great worker.

Donuts – Len loved a donut, he would walk a mile to get one.

Cutting grass at Warrandyte, Len laboured for years taming the grass. 

Happy Valley – dream to move to country block near Kilmore.

Carlton F C – loves the blues, too much handball he would lament.

Lollies – we all loved going to Warrandyte to raid Len’s numerous lolly tins.

Softdrink Fountain, Emma reminded me, how Len would lovingly make special flavour combinations for Jasmine and Emma.

Singing – Len would often erupt into songs.

Food – loved his cream cakes, had to be real cream, no icing, it was too sweet

Going out for a meal , he would sometimes order two sweets for his meal.

When I think of Len I realise he was his own man, an individual with a strong sense of how life should be. I remember he spoke to me privately when I married Mandy, giving me his good wishes and telling me he respected me. 

Thank you Len

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