A touching memorial was held on October 31 by friends from the theatre community,a member of the Navy, Alcoholics Anonymous, the ANU food cooperative and Satyananda Yoga for the late William (Bill/Mac) Basil Cumpsty, who died in June this year alone, aged 81, in his North Lyneham flat.
Though the wheels of the ACT Police, the ACT Public Trustee and the ACT Coroner’s Court necessarily ground slowly, he was eventually identified and acknowledged in a touching ceremony that illustrated how his life had meant to the many people with whom he came in contact.
Known in the Canberra theatre scene as an actor of extraordinary facial vitality, as actor Peter Robinson explained in his eulogy, he was seized upon by the late director Ralph Wilson, who used him as a nonverbal participant in his shows, deliberately drawing attention away from more verbal elements. This was especially the case of in a play by Canberra’s Jane Bradhurst, in which Robinson played the explorer John O’Hara Burke, while Cumpsty upstaged him as Burke’s camel. He was also known for his interpretations of Samuel Beckett.
Another theatre friend, Colin Vaskess, found in Ralph Wilson’s papers in the Canberra Heritage Library, evidence that Cumpsty had played an Athenian policeman in Lysistrata, Graaberg in The Wild Duck, Yakov in The Seagull, Bardolph in Henry IV Part 2, a parson in The Country Wife and small roles in Wilson’s productions of plays by Moliere, Beckett and Witkiewicz.
Cumpsty was born in Lancashire England, the elder brother of Mary, Sally and Ann (Flenley) who emailed a moving recollection to those gathered at Norwood Park Crematorium on October 31.
Other participants in the ceremony recollected his naval career both in England and later with the Royal Australian Navy, his struggles that led him to join Alcoholics Anonymous, his participation in Satyananda yoga’s Kirtan chanting and his involvement with the ANU Food Coop.
Both the beginning and the end of the memorial were marked by singing and a ceremonial farewell by Mereana Otene-Waaka.
In the view of retired musician and friend Chris Bettle, who organised this farewell, and of the many people who gathered on October 31 to honour him, Bill Cumpsty’s was a life well-lived.
Helen Musa November 2, 2011
