The Independent is looking back at our best Friday features of last year, and this is one of them.
Ian Stacey didn’t expect to hear back from King Charles after he sent a letter of condolences when the queen died. He was thrilled when a letter from Buckingham Palace turned up in his letterbox. Justin Flynn talk to him about it and his nearly 85 years of living in Geelong.
At 84 years young, Ian Stacey is well known across the greater Geelong region.
A former councillor and resident of Thomson for 47 years, Ian now calls Leopold home and would be one of the very few locals to have received a reply from a letter he sent to the new king on the passing of the queen.
Ian wrote a letter of sympathy to King Charles when Queen Elizabeth passed and to his astonishment, received a letter back.
“When I saw the queen had died and Charles was to take over I thought ‘oh well seeing as I’ve met Charles and met the queen, I thought I’d write him a letter of sympathy,” he says.
“Just let him know who I was, I put a copy of the invitations when I had to go and meet them, I think in 1974 or ’75.
“The other night my daughter collected the mail and said ‘dad you’ve got a letter from Buckingham Palace’. I was absolutely delighted. I don’t think there’d be too many people in Geelong who got it.”
Ian is a staunch monarchist.
“Let’s face it, Charles has been from day one you’re going to be the king and has had 71 years of being trained for it,” he said.
“When blokes become PM, they’ve done a few years in politics and it’s something new to them.”
To say Ian has packed a bit into his 84-and-a-half years would be an understatement.
He was a choir boy at South Geelong Methodist and St Matthews churches and at nights, sold ice creams at Geelong Theatre.
After school, sold Heralds on the corner of Moorabool and Malop Streets and later on a bicycle paper round through the Eastern Beach area.
He attended South Geelong Primary School and then Geelong Junior Technical school.
He played footy, tennis and cricket for Thomson and gave 14 years service to East Geelong Community Youth Club, 25 years to East Geelong Senior Citizens Club and was a former number one ticket holder for the Geelong & District Football League.
Ian was secretary of Thomson Recreation Reserve and campaigned for funding, which in turn led his foray into running for local council.
“The ground in those days, in the summer it was a dust bowl and in the winter it was a duck pond – mud and slush,” he says.
“I kept writing and even hand delivering letters to council for some improvements. In those days they had a municipal assistance fund.
“My letter wasn’t tabled at the meeting and I thought ‘something’s funny going on here’ so I kept writing more letters.
“I thought’ I’ve had enough of this’ and they were calling for vacancies. “The guy that was representing us, he had a business up in Star Street and I stood against him and had a landslide victory over him.
“I was very keen to get on the recreation committee and the finance committee and got the council to take over the reserve at Thomson, and St Albans and the Breakwater reserve.”
These days Ian keeps busy by doing lots of walking. He has three daughters and “grandkids galore”.
“I’ve had a couple of health setbacks, but the thing is there’s no good sitting around in a rocking chair watching TV, you’ll get worse,” he says.
“I make sure I get out, I watch what I eat, don’t smoke, I only have one pot of beer each week.”
