Nigel Donne talked to the club about his ancestry and life journey.
He is a direct descendant of John Donne, a poet who lived from 1572 - 1631. His ancestors settled in New Zealand in the 1800's and subsequent generations served in WWI and WWII. His father, James Donne, was a barrister and solicitor who moved to Western Samoa in 1970 where he was appointed a Judge. He then went on to become Chief Justice of Western Samoa, Chief Justice and Queens Representative in the Cook Islands, Chief Justice to Niue, Tuvalu and Nauru and was knighted in 1979 for services to the judiciary and the South Pacific.
Nigel's working life includes a stint with Fruit Distributors in Apia, a company he continued with when he moved to Auckland.
He went to Australia in 1973/74 where he worked for most of the time in Weipa Queensland in Comalco’s bauxite mine. He joined the NZ Police in 1976 and was posted to Takapuna. He moved to Hamilton to commence a job as a Factory Inspector for the Department of Labour and he and his wife Adrienne had three children during that time. In 1993 Nigel became HR Manager for Marley NZ and retired in 2013 after 20 years of service and subsequently set up a business consultancy which he wound down in 2021.
Nigel became a member of the club in July 2022 and joined the Bruised Brothers Band in March 2023 and is grandfather to seven grandchildren.