David Graham Wyllie

David "Graham"Wyllie was born at " Balmoral",  Outram on August 15, 1906, the third child of David and Margaret Wyllie. He was educated at Outram Primary School where he was dux in 1919. He spent three years at Otago Boys High School then took up a position in the National Bank of New Zealand, Outram branch.  Among his teenage interests were motorbikes and ham radio. A family anecdote is that he heard on his radio  the score of the All Blacks test  match against England during their 1924 tour and duly informed the local press who would not believe him as normally communications between England and New Zealand took many days. When he was subsequently shifted to the  Dunedin Head Office he rode his motorbike to and from work every day. He was also a very keen rifle shot especially in the indoor ranges popular at that time.  He won many trophies (see photos below) and was an Otago champion a number of times. After an extended courtship he married Dorothea Mundella Jean Wilson in 1934 and their first child Ian was born on 4-10-1935 followed by their second son Grant on 3-6-1938. In 1941 they relinquished their lease on "Balmoral" and shifted to a small property at 110 Gladstone Road , Mosgiel.  Here in 1945 a daughter Marianne was added to the family.  Graham was able to follow his hobby of farming, developing a poultry farm (sometimes up to 1000 hens) and building hatching facilities. This together with a couple of cows and a few sheep on occasions kept him busy outside his normal working hours.  Brought up during the Great Depression he was the ultimate DIY man, servicing and repairing his car and establishing a good workshop with a metal lathe and many other bits of machinery. He was also a formidable gardener and created a vegetable garden which supplied all the household needs.  In later years he developed an interest in flowers specialising in growing bedding begonias.

He retired from the bank in 1966. He suffered a stroke and died on July 17, 1980.