Articles

Bob Burns (aka Fishy)

A STORY OF COURAGE and DETERMINATION AGAINST ALL ODDS

 

 

Hi , I am Ken Vessey and it is with great pleasure that I put pen to paper to detail some of the interesting life,to date, of one of our Chelsea Old Mates Robert Burns (aka Fishy),who many of you will know and recognize from our Chelsea Old Mates functions but probably do not know too much about him.

You might wonder “how did I get this task” – well at a recent Chelsea Old Mates Committee meeting we spoke about the life of Fishy along with the recent hope and happiness in his life and we decided it was a story that should be told and I was given the task because I have known Fishy since 1956 in High School at Paddington Junior Technical School.

Bob 3rd from Right bottom

So settle back for a few minutes and I hope you enjoy my version of Fishy’s life to date.

Bob was born on the 8 June 1943 at The Royal Womens’ Hospital, Paddington and grew up in Dudley Street, Paddington along with two sisters and one brother. He attended Paddington Primary School and in 1956 moved over to the High School where he met a number of Chelsea United Rugby League Football Club players including Barry and Peter Atkinson, Brian Brigden, Alex Buerckner, Tommy Ford, Brian Fuz (deceased), Billy and Jimmy Harvey, Smokey Judd (deceased), Ken Kay, Ronny Lalor, Bob Lanigan, Terry Murray, John Oates, Shanna Pearson, Alex Smith, Kevin “Bilko” Roberts, Laurie Rubagotti and Ken Vessey (nineteen in total).

He soon became Mates with many of the nineteen guys, played school sports and importantly played rugby league with some at the Chelsea United Rugby League Football Club from 1958 (E Grade) till 1966 (A Grade). Amazingly after 57 years many of those nineteen guys are members of the Chelsea Old Mates and Bobby sees them at our functions.

Bob was a natural sportsman and grew up playing Cricket (was an astute

Bob 2nd from Left top

wicket keeper) , Aussie Rules and naturally Rugby League but his true love was playing Rugby League as a natural lock forward or anywhere he was picked because he just wanted to play the game with his mates. He built up a reputation as a fearless tackler, ball distributor and a player who would never “come off the field” through injury.

At Paddington Junior Tech he was a member of the 1957 school’s undefeated touring team to Western Australia

Bob Middle at back with big smile

Bob 2nd from Right

and his team mates included Brian Fuz, Bob Lanigan (capt), John Oates and Jimmy Harvey.

In 1958 he was selected with Brian Fuz in the NSW Schoolboys Rep Team

 

Bob 2nd from Left 

(under 9 stone/15 years old) which also contained Alan Stewart a brilliant fullback who subsequently played for Chelsea United and Bobby tells a funny story that during the very competitive selection trials a player from another school, named Warren Thompson (yes our THOMMO) had a fantastic game scoring 6 brilliant tries and was considered a certainty selection but was not picked in the team !!!! It was later revealed that the selectors had overheard a player talking about something that was not to their liking and they had misidentified that player as our THOMMO, whereas the overheard player was in actual fact our Fuzzy, who was selected and named Captain !!!

As an aside, for those of us who saw Fuzzy play, what a great delight and thrill to watch his natural skills and all round ability – we shall never forget those days.

Bobby enjoyed success in cricket as a wicket keeper….

Bob is wearing the pads                        Paddington Cricket 1954

even though he was told at an early age he was “legally blind” but that did not stop him playing sport — but more on his eyesight later.

People often ask why Bobby did not play in the South Sydney President Cup trials/teams when he was playing in the highly successful Chelsea United D, C and B Grade teams and the simply answer is that he was always suffering from a range of injuries including broken jaw/other joints,knees and shoulders when the trials were held and he could not play. Bob in subsequent years thought he might have been suffering from osteoporosis back then, when little was known about the condition.

 

Bob 2nd from Left middle row          Chelsea 1960 D Grade

Upon leaving school he completed an apprenticeship as a Plumber and up until the 14 April 1988 worked successfully in his trade when unfortunately he was involved in an work accident, which resulted in the death of his work companion and Bob’s right leg was severely broken resulting in a metal plate, thirteen screws being placed above his knee plus a bone graft to keep his leg in place. He eventually recovered and was able to return to work but in a few years he broke his right leg again on two separate occasions (around 2001) and two more plates were placed in his upper right leg.

On top of all this, sadly since his original injury in 1988 he had contracted the dreaded disease “Golden Staph” which eventually spread through his top right leg and into his right hip and on the 2 April 2002, Surgeons had to amputate his right leg and right hip bone. Bob spent eight months in hospital followed by one year in care at the Salvation Army Macquarie Hostel, Wollongong Road, Arncliffe and since recovering he has resided at this residential care facility,where he looked after very well.

At a period through his terrible ordeal, Bob had thirty six operations in twenty three weeks and there is no doubt in my mind that a lesser man would have had his spirit broken completely by such horrific events and impact upon his life but not our Bob because he has picked himself up, dusted himself off and got on with his life.

Warren Thompson (Thommo) , Colin Downing and I have never heard him complain about what happened and says”no use complaining, it’s not going to fix it”.

In June 2004 whilst a few of us were contacting people to attend a benefit for the “great man” Pat O’Grady a fluke telephone contact was made with Bobby and he subsequently attended the Benefit and reconnected with many of his old Chelsea United mates. It was a fact that over the years many of us had lost contact with Bobby and at that time we made a commitment to maintain contact with him and assist where we could.

Since that time we have maintained regular visits to see Bobby to check he is well, resolve his needs, made sure he attends all of our Chelsea Old Mates functions and have provided valuable welfare assistance to him through the kind generosity of the Men of League Foundation.

 

Bob was in many ways the conduit for the formation of the Chelsea Old Mates in June 2010, as the need to stay in contact and assist where possible our friends and colleagues from the Chelsea United Rugby League Football Club or any other Clubs was fully recognized and today we are proud that our membership database has 402 members.

 

Finally back to Bob’s alleged “legal blind” eyesight and the recent new hope and happiness he looks forward to in his life. Over recent years he had been told by eye practitioners that had visited him in his care facility that there was nothing could be done to improve his eyesight, which does not allow him to read a newspaper/book or see the print on a TV screen. Warren knew of an excellent Eye Surgeon, so the three of us (Warren, Colin and I) raised the subject with Bob regarding to get a true and thorough eye assessment, the wonderful advances that had been made in eye surgery and he just replied “yes it would be great to see better so let’s do it”.

Bob had an examination by the Eye Surgeon,was diagnosed with having cataracts in both eyes and that his eyesight could be improved by the removal of the cataracts. On the 14 January 2013 he had the cataracts removed from his left eye and to date his eyesight has improved to his sheer delight and he has a further check up visit on the 19 February 2013 at which his right eye operation will be scheduled. We all sincerely hope that the next operation will be successful and Bob will enjoy much improved eye vision and happiness in his remaining years.

 

Bob in 1965

I hope you have enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed preparing it about Bobby who is a truly remarkable character.For those who might be interested Bob’s mobile phone number is 0427 463 191, address Salvation Residential Aged Care Facility,171 Wollongong Road, Arncliffe.

Ken Vessey

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