Sadly another of our Gunner brethren has departed all too young for the Great Gun Park. David Joseph 'Neggers' Negline , born 23rd January 1941, died suddenly from a massive heart attack on 23rd April 2004 whilst visiting his home town of Newcastle for the ANZAC Day weekend. He had previously sustained a couple of smaller heart attacks.

Dave graduated from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea in December 1963 along with such other notables as Barrie Winsor, Juergen Raasch, Dick Wickenden, Ian Reid and Ted Diro (PNG). His initial postings included 1st Field Regiment and 1st Recruit Training Battalion, later he was selected for the Long Physical Training Course in the UK. The payback for this trip was, of course, almost three years as the Senior Instructor PT at the School of Artillery. Dave returned to field gunnery as a forward observer and then battery captain with 107th Field Battery which included a tour of duty in Vietnam. On return, he moved into the air defence stream becoming an early commander of the new Redeye surface-to-air missile battery. His enthusiasm and pride led to air defence weapons becoming widely employed throughout the field army rather than guarding RAAF airfields. Before hanging up his spurs in January 1983 as a major, Dave was on the instructional staff at the Australian Joint Warfare Establishment. He then became a rather private individual who devoted himself to his family.

'Neggers' will be remembered for his quiet, dry sense of humour, his good-natured acceptance of jokes about a PT background and 'gentle giant' size, for encouraging other field gunners to move to air defence, and by the Diggers who enjoyed firing the Redeye missile stocks he liberated before they grew mouldy on the shelves.

Dave is survived by his wife Elizabeth (Liz) and children Paul, Julie, Richard and Matthew. My thanks to Dave's brother Graham and Chris Hunter for contributions to this story. Vale David Joseph Negline - field gunner, PT instructor and air defence gunner. Called for higher duty at only 63 years of age.