About 150 friends and family shared fond memories at Raglan Club last Monday of a homeless man who for years ambled Whāingaroa’s streets and the beach every day, stopping to chat to friends and strangers with a faithful German Shepherd by his side.
Known by many around town simply as the ‘dog man’, Brian Chesham touched a lot of hearts and even became something of a celebrity figure – appearing on Prime and TV3 – when early last year the community rallied to give him and dog Luga a van to live in.
Through a Givealittle page, Raglan raised more than $17,000 to help the pair out.
In the fortnight or so since Brian passed away, his best friend Luga has been found a new home with family in Hamilton, but was brought along and sat quietly inside the main door of the club during the celebration of Brian’s 67 years.
Brian loved Raglan, his first cousin Raewyn Stevenson told the informal gathering. “And Raglan loved Brian too.”
Raewyn shared some treasured memories from her now 17 years as a Raglan-based policewoman, a role in which she often saw Brian out walking with his German Shepherd – first Zak, then Luga. And she told of a community coming together to help a man out with coffees, friendship and eventually a campervan as a mobile home.
She also related how a relative in town came to the police station to ask her “in your official capacity” to get her cousin Brian to cut his toenails. But she didn’t feel the need to do that, she laughed, nor to file a police report. And she never breathed a word to Brian about the aunt’s visit.
Brian had a long affiliation with Raglan, his younger brother Wayne told those who gathered on Monday afternoon to celebrate his life. The Chesham family was from Fairfield and spent many Christmas holidays first at a bach in Cliff St, then at Kopua campground.
A cousin of Brian’s said that growing up he saw him as an older brother, recalling the family holidays in Raglan. “He taught Wayne and I all the mischief we knew … and he could do the best manus (bum-first bombs) off that bridge.”
Brian ultimately chose and went on to love his “nomadic” way of life in Raglan over the last 15 years or so, said Wayne, thanking the community on behalf of their family for accepting him as he was.
He was on a sickness benefit after having suffered three heart attacks in his 40s, and early on was familiar to many around town in a red Toyota station wagon with dog Zak.
Then longtime local Rangi Kereopa gave him a caravan on family land at Manu Bay to live in. She told the gathering that when mail addressed to him arrived at her place – mostly from WINZ or the doctor – he’d just say to tear it up. “So I did!”
Family members told of Brian’s teenage years at St John’s College where he enjoyed playing rugby and cricket and, after that, had motorbikes for motocross riding.
Later he joined the Territorials, relishing both the discipline and the camaraderie of army life. “It was the leanest and fittest we ever saw the bugger,” his brother quipped.
Comrades at that time – fellow gunners in Vietnam – revealed he was called Handsome in the army, not Brian. They said he was a “massively strong man” who also played regimental rugby with the best of them.
He was not hard done by, they insisted of Brian’s later Raglan life wandering and chatting among friends. “It was just the way he lived.”
Brian had become a little disenchanted with the norms of society, said another friend, but was happy to be free “to walk barefoot in Raglan”.
By Edith Symes
