Former MP Bill Nankivell dies
A politician who represented the Mallee in South Australia’s parliament for 20 years has died, aged 100.
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An MP who represented the Mallee in South Australia’s parliament for 20 years has died at the age of 100.
Bill Nankivell served as the Liberal and Country League MP for Albert, then for Mallee, from 1959 until 1979.
He died on June 11, and was farewelled at Norwood on Friday.
William Field Nankivell was born in Mount Gambier on September 7, 1923, the son of a Baptist pastor.
He was educated at King’s College – now Pembroke – and Roseworthy Agricultural College, and served in the Royal Australian Air Force during the last year of World War II.
He married Dianne on December 6, 1947, and they bought a cattle farming property at Geranium in 1954.
Five years later he was elected to the South Australian parliament as the Liberal and Country League member for Albert, under Premier Sir Thomas Playford.
He went for the party leadership when Sir Thomas stepped down in 1970, but lost to eventual Premier Steele Hall.
However, he served on the backbench as the Member for Albert, then Mallee, until his retirement in 1979, when he was succeeded by Peter Lewis.
“In my day we were not politicians, we were parliamentarians,” he once said, according to a speaker at his funeral.
In his later years he was a prominent member of the Naval, Military and Air Force Club of South Australia, King’s College old scholars and St Matthew’s Church, and an avid tennis and bridge player and lawn bowler.
Baptist minister Ian Bruce presided at Mr Nankivell’s funeral in Adelaide on Friday.
He described Mr Nankivell as kind and generous to his family, not one for confrontation, and a man who would be sorely missed.
A former parliamentary colleague, Roger Goldsworthy, described Mr Nankivell as a great conversationalist with an incisive mind, and “the most generous, self-effacing, friendly chap that I ever knew”.
- Watch a replay of the funeral service: www.berryfunerals.com.au.
