Couple Married For 60 Years

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31339, 8 April 1967, Page 2

Couple Married For 60 Years

Mr and Mrs Robert Lambie, a Christchurch couple who celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on Monday, support the old maxim that those who give most get most out of life.

Mrs Lambie, now in her 82nd year, played for dances in the Ellesmere district for 56 years, bred race-horses, “did everything on a farm except kill a beast," drove a mail cart “when father was away at the Grand National,” was a foundation member of the Lakeside Women’s Institute and secretary for 16 years, and an active member of the Red Cross and the Maori Welfare League.

Mr Lambie played Rugby for Canterbury when he was 17 years old and was a crack shot He remembers the time when he would shoot 100 ducks on the opwing day of the duck shooting season. “I shot 100 ducks on the opening three years in a row,” he said.

“I love horses—the more spirited they were the better I liked them,” Mr* Lambie said.

Although she had no musical tuition, she delighted generations of dance-goer* with her musical ability, both on the piano and the violin. She “just picked up a fiddle and started to play." When she invited Christchurch musicians out to join her band, they had to play the tune* about twice and then she was "with them all the way."

She remembers the time, she heard a cattily tune in a vaudeville show and she went twice to pick it up, and then bought the music to learn the words. •

She played for patriotic socials during three wars, the Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War, sometimes playing three nights a week, “but I would have gon* every night if I could," and she was al-

ways back in time to milk the cows in the morning. When her seven children were young she took the baby along, too.

As there were not many halls in the area, dances were held in barns and woolsheds. Blouses and skirts were the order of the day as it was so easy to change into a riding habit afterwards. The gentlemen paid and the girls went in free unless the dance was given by a spinster when the opposite occurred. If a man smelt of drink he was lucky to get in, and the girls frowned on any men who were not Wearing, gloves.

Her venture into breeding horses was also a success. She bought a brood mare off her father, and bred Chef, which later put up an Australian and New Zealand record for a one mile saddle trot for three-year-olds.

“Then I bred a full brother to Chef and he was a nasty beggar. He had the speed but he was cranky, a real jibber. There was one bridge, he wouldn’t go over forwards so I just had to take him over backwards. His name was Red Gold and he was taken over by Cedi Donald who managed to get a few races out of him"

Another successful trotter, Bessie Logan, was bred by Mr* Lambie and her father and she still holds the Hawera Cup won by Bessie Logan in 1925.

Mr and Mr* Lambie have one daughter and six sons, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Three of their son* were in active service in the Second World War and one of them was killed in 1845.

Longevity is a characteristic of Mr Lambie’s family, although he attribute* his own long life to the fact that “he married a good cook.”

Hi* parents were pioneer settlers in the Ellesmere district and he was born in Lakeside. He was a member of the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association.