The hero returns

The years Keith Park spent in Dunedin may not have marked him as a future saviour of the free world. But that period of his life is keenly remembered, reports Allison Rudd.

Keith Park was not a brilliant student. By his own admission, his performance at Otago Boys High School was "undistinguished".

He was a handy sportsman but never a champion. He spent just a year and a-half as a pupil there and visited only twice more in his lifetime.

But Sir Keith Park, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (Military Division), Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Military Cross and Bar, Distinguished Flying Cross, French Croix de Geurre, Commander of the American Legion of Merit, is probably the school's best known old boy, and certainly its most influential.

At the school, evidence of his presence can be found - if, like archivist Dave Goodman, you know where to look for it.

A photograph of him taken in Malta adorns an office wall. In another office, there is a print of fighter planes in action gifted by Sir Keith during one of his visits.

In the small museum Mr Goodman is trying to bring to order is a collection of memorabilia including letters, photographs and school magazines which mention Sir Keith's schoolboy achievements and his visits in 1946 and 1969.

Born in Thames in 1892, Keith Rodney Park was the ninth child and third son of James and Mary Park. In 1901, most of the Park family moved to Dunedin, where James became Professor of Mining at the University of Otago. Keith, who by that time was a boarder at Kings College in Auckland, remained there until 1906.

His biographer, Prof Vincent Orange, does not say where Keith went to school between 1906 and 1908, but he began at Otago Boys High School in 1909.

The register for that year gives his age on entry into Fifth Form Remove at 16 years and nine months, up to two years older than some of his classmates. By the end of the year, having studied the standard fare of English, mathematics, science and Latin, he was 14th out of a class of 25, and 17th out of 20 in Latin.

Probably the most striking thing about the schoolboy would have been his height. At almost 2m tall - 6ft 5in - he would have towered over his contemporaries and probably his teachers, too.

A 1909 school magazine lists K. R. Park as a handy tennis player and member of the tennis club committee. He also gets a mention as Private Park of the school cadet forces.

Another magazine lists him as a back in the school's Second XV in various school exchange matches. But his playing days did not last long that year, as he had to retire after "unfortunately hurting his knee".

When Sir Keith made his first visit to the school as an old boy he was at the height of his fame. He was about to retire from the Royal Air Force and much had been made in the New Zealand newspapers about his bravery and exemplary record in two world wars.

He and his wife Dorothy - known as Dol - were still living in Britain (Sir Keith had not lived in New Zealand since 1915) but came "home" on an official visit so Sir Keith could hold informal talks with the Royal New Zealand Air Force about its post-war plans. A busy round of interviews, speeches and civic receptions up and down the country followed over more than three months.

After visiting his father, then 89, who was living in Oamaru, Sir Keith visited Otago Boys on June 7. He spoke to the pupils in the afternoon and attended a civic reception in the evening.

Sir Keith was accorded hero status on his next - and final - visit to Dunedin in December, 1969, for the Dunedin premiere of the movie Battle of Britain. Considered an accurate portrayal of the 1940 battle, its all-star cast, including Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, and its spectacular aerial battle scenes, ensured it was an instant success. Trevor Howard played Sir Keith.

The premiere, which raised funds for the Otago Boys High School hostel, was a black-tie event held at the Regent Theatre and attended by about 1500 people, including many school pupils. The local Air Training Corp cadets formed a guard of honour outside.

The 77-year-old Sir Keith was by then weathered and craggy, but an Otago Daily Times photograph published the following morning shows him with a broad smile on his face, an impressive row of medals pinned to his dinner jacket, and, as usual, standing head and shoulders above the crowd.

The undistinguished schoolboy had become a man to look up to, physically and metaphorically.