Sir Archibald Glenn. 1912 to 4th January 2012

"MUBC's oldest known living member, Sir Archibald Glenn, died on 4 January at the age of 100. Archie as he was known to friends was Captain of MUBC 1932-3, rowed in two winning Ormond College intercollegiate eights and in four MUBC intervarsity crews between 1930 and 1933. He confided to friends that one of his regrets in rowing was not winning the Oxford and Cambridge Cup in an era dominated by SUBC and UWA crews.

However he did row in the 6 seat in the MUBC senior eight which won the 1934 Victorian Championships (see the photograph below). In that race, held as part of Victoria's centenary celebrations, a London Rowing Club eight competing by invitation was first across the line by 8 lengths with MUBC second and Mercantile third, ahead of six other Victorian club crews. According to the newspaper report of the day (reproduced on p.125 of the Club's history), the race was a "farce" because the LRC crew had the benefit of the protected station on the 2 1/2 mile Lower Yarra course, the river being in flood.

Sir Archibald came from very humble beginnings on a dairy farm at Sale, and after attending Scotch college where he was a scholarship winner, excellent student and sportsman, he enrolled at UoM in the engineering faculty. One of his fellow residents and friends at Ormond was Weary Dunlop, later to become a hero to our prisoners of war in Japanese pow camps.

During his business career, Sir Archibald gave 26 years distinguished service to ICI (later known as Orica). Among other distinctions, he rose to become managing director of ICI, member of the Council to establish Monash University,  and foundation Chancellor of La Trobe University. He was knighted in 1966.

Sir Archibald was a loyal member of the club, and attended the sesquicentenary dinner in 2009, as our most senior member present. He was an eminent Australian and the Club extends its sincere condolences to his family."