It is with great regret that I advise all personnel that Retired District Officer Basil SMITH (Reg No 205) passed away on the 13 June last.
Basil joined the MFB on 15 November 1946 and retired on 16 November 1983 after 37 years of service to the Brigade and the Community. After his initial training at FS 1, Basil subsequently served at FS 18, FS10 (Hoddle Street) and FS 19 (Kew). Upon being promoted to the rank of Station Officer Basil returned to FS 1 and remained there until the opportunity arose for him to become one of the first instructors at the newly created Training Department. The creation of this Department resulted in formalised and structured training programmes being delivered for the first time in the history of the Brigade. As a member of the original training team Basil instructed on Recruit Course 1 and countless other Recruit and Promotional courses in the years that followed.
Following his retirement Basil offered his services to the MFB RetireEd program where he quickly became the “elder statesman” of the program and delivered more than 160 presentations between 1993 – 2005.
The MFB has a proud tradition of members following in the footsteps of their family and the Smith family is no exception. Basil’s son, Leading Firefighter Graeme Smith, has carried on this tradition and is currently stationed FS 10 on “A” Platoon.