Egbert Fernandes: DRGS Triple Olympian

DRGS triple hockey Olympian, Egbert Carmo Fernandes, left this world after a short battle with cancer on Thursday, November, 6. 2014. Devoted husband of Bertha and doting father of Vincent (Miriam), Wallace and Joanne (Kevin). Papa to Matthew and Luke. Egbert was the son of the late Vincent and Mary Fernandes, brother and brother-in- law of Edgar (Rose), Edna (Renato), Ellen (Geoff), and uncle to Errol (Sandra), Lenard (Melanie), Malcolm (Anne), Julian (Nickola), Rachel (Marc), Gillian (Bill). The Eucharistic celebration took place on Friday, November 14, 2014 in Canberra, Australia. Below is a eulogy by Egbert's brother, Edgar Fernandes, also a great DRGS hockey olympian in his own right.

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We are here to celebrate Egbert’s life, as that is the way he would have wanted it.

He was snuffed out of this world like the snap of one’s fingers, leaving both family and friends in a stunned inexplicable silence. He went in for tests as he had a cancerous growth in his oesophagus and an endoscopy performed on him resulted in complications, which saw him go down very fast.

Egbert was born in Kisumu – Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria and spent his early childhood there and in Kakamega. Dad then moved to Kiambu and eventually Nairobi and Egbert completed his Secondary schooling at Dr. Ribeiros Goan School. At school he played Hockey, Soccer and Cricket, and was quite a good athlete winning the Victor Ludorum one year. At studies he did his best and worked hard in his final years. However, an incident at school in his pen ultimate year is quite amusing. He was among a group if friends that managed to see exam papers in a small office where students were dropped off when returning from sport, and they somehow managed to retrieve these papers and swore each other to secrecy. Of course we had never seen him put so much effort into his studies, writing reams of papers practicing answers to possible questions, so he said. One of these students went into the exam having worked out 7 of the 10 questions in Maths. As it was the practice of teachers to sign your answer sheet at the start of an exam, he submitted these after 15 minutes and the teacher was amazed he had completed these so quickly. When asked, he said they were so easy. The teacher signed it, but went in to the staff room to speak to the Maths teacher only to find that he was a dud at Maths. The group were finally caught and expelled for a short time from school. Egbert’s Mum was horrified when she was told, returning home on a bus from work that day that her son was one of them. He got a proper tongue lashing from Mum.

Egbert undoubtedly loved Hockey playing in the School team at 15 and then his first International at 17 against England. He went to 3 Olympics, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico, where he had the distinction of being the only Kenyan to be nominated in a possible World XI, which is selected at the end of the Olympics. He always played for the Goan Institute and was part of the 1961 team that won the Gold Cup. He represented the Kenya Goans which was a feeder for the National team. In Australia he played for St. Pats in Canberra for about 10 years and played Masters for the ACT in the Australian Championships for 2 years when a chronic back injury made him hang his hockey stick up forever.

He and Bertha came to Australia in 1973 with his Mum, who he cared and looked after, till she passed away in 1991. He met Bertha when he was 16 and she 14 at an Athletics carnival where they had both won their events. Their friendship grew into a love affair that blossomed, culminating in getting married after 10 years. They had 2 handsome boys Vincent and Wallace and their gorgeous daughter Joanne was born in Australia. He was delighted to welcome Kevin married to Joanne, and Miriam married to Vincent, into the family. He was absolutely thrilled with the arrival of 2 grand children, Luke and Matthew about a year and half ago.

His best mate at school was Caji D’souza (Kenya Junior Tennis Champion) who played various sports in school with him. He sent a message from New Zealand, as he was unable to be here, expressing his sympathy and shock when hearing the news.

Avtar Singh Kenya Hockey captain rang me to express his profound sympathy as he was shocked by the news. He said that Egbert was a great buddy and shared a room with him on most of the hockey trips.

Lucas Noronha has been his best mate in Australia for 33 years. Lucas could tell you quite a few amusing stories. A special thanks to him and wife Osley, whose phenomenal support at this time is very much appreciated.

He had a good rapport with his brothers-in-law, Geoff and Renato. Went to 3 Melbourne Cups with Geoff and Ellen. His sisters Edna and Ellen, despite their differences at times saw him as caring, loving, supportive and protective. He was a wonderful brother to them and to me. We may have been miles apart but we were as close as two peas in a pod. He was a fun loving person, always smiling, jovial, easy going. He ‘hated’ a drink. But when he had one too many he would love to sing Belafonte’s ballads in particular ‘Day Oh’ and his Indian version ‘You are my sum sum’ (You are my sunshine) were hilarious. He loved telling jokes. When we played Hockey together, him at CF and myself at RI, we never ever discussed tactics, but knew instinctively what the other was doing and must say that we pierced many a defence in our time. When staying at my son’s place, my grand sons Ryan and Jason loved him as a second grand pa. He got on so well with them. A joke they remember was the “Knock Knock’ game:

Egbert said, ‘Knock, Knock’

R & J: 'Who’s there?'

'Egbert'

R & J: 'Egbert who?'

'Egg but no bacon'

And the boys laughed their heads off.

On hearing the news they shed a tear. The elder one remarked to his dad. 'Dad, Now there is No Egg and No Bacon'. Funny but true.

Sinatra’s 'I Did it My Way' was a fitting finale as Egbert did things his way. It was his decision not to carry on with more tests. He didn’t like to be experimented on.

It's ‘ADIOS’ my dear brother, as you make your way to your final destination. May you go in the peace of the Lord?

Condolences: wallace.fernandes22@gmail.com Canberra Times Guest Book

Egbert's Olympic Stats 1960 Rome Olympics (Source: Sports Reference/Olympic Sports)

Memories of our DRGS Triple Olympian:

Egbert Fernandes: 'A naturally-gifted athlete’ By Norman Da Costa

The legend of Egbert Fernandes: hockey star for always By Cyprian Fernandes

Egbert Carmo Fernandes (1941 – 2014) by Dil Bahra : Sikhs in Hockey Fieldhockey.com (see bottom of page)

Other Coverage: Link1* Link 2* Link3

*You can download the original Daily Nation articles by clicking here

A selection of tributes to Egbert Please send your tributes to Cyprian Fernandes at: skipfer@live.com.au

Other Egbert Fernandes References: LinkA LinkB LinkC LinkD

Our sincere thanks to all those who collaborated to make this page possible.