the first All Blacks, known as the Originals<\/a>, on their highly successful tour of Great Britain, Ireland, France and the US in 1905-1906, and was considered the \u201cfather of the All Blacks\u201d.<\/p>\nThe Gallaher Shield \u2013 the main club competition in Auckland \u2013 is named after him, as is the Dave Gallaher Trophy, contested between New Zealand and France.<\/p>\n
But Dave wasn\u2019t just a rugby legend \u2013 he was also a war hero who signed up to fight in World War I, even though he was exempt from conscription because he was married with a child and in his early forties. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a bunch of reasons why he went,\u201d explains Jude. \u201cAs a former All Black captain, he knew how to deal with people and had great leadership skills. All the men he knew had gone, so he probably felt like he should do his part. I have enormous respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave enlisted in the army in 1916 and was sent to the Western Front in Europe. He was killed at Passchendaele in October 1917, aged 43.<\/p>\n
Jude says it has been a privilege to pay tribute to him. She\u2019s not really a rugby fan, admitting, \u201cI\u2019m the person who rings their friend and they say, \u2018Why are you calling now? Don\u2019t you realise there\u2019s a rugby match on?\u2019 I have no idea.\u201d <\/p>\n
The documentary focuses on an extra-special way of honouring Dave. Jude arranged for soil to be dug up from the pitch at Eden Park, where a massive bronze statue of Dave has pride of place outside one of the entrances. It was then taken to three overseas sites of significance to him \u2013 a park named after him in his birthplace, Ramelton, Northern Ireland; Parc des Princes in Paris, where he played his final game as an All Black; and his grave in Belgium\u2019s Nine Elms British Cemetery. <\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The documentary honours Dave Gallaher. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n
Soil from each of those locations was then returned to New Zealand and interred beneath the turf at Eden Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a way of bringing Dave home,\u201d Jude says.<\/p>\n
She ensured the appropriate respect was paid to Dave at each location, with dignified ceremonies held each time. Former All Blacks legends Sean Fitzpatrick and Andrew Mehrtens helped with the poignant process of transferring the soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a massive undertaking,\u201d admits Jude, recalling the complicated logistics of digging up the soil in different sites, getting it sent across the world and back to New Zealand, and meeting strict biosecurity regulations. \u201cI couldn\u2019t just pop it in my handbag!\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also a mission getting funding for the doco \u2013 in the end, a handful of generous philanthropists made it possible. The constant battle to raise the money to make documentaries is why Jude has decided it\u2019s time to do something else. <\/p>\n
Although she adds, \u201cUnless of course somebody gave me the funding to do something about Kiwi Vietnam veterans. Some of them are still alive. That\u2019s something I would do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, she\u2019s unlikely to tackle ghostwriting another book, despite the phenomenal success of The Last Secret Agent. It was a huge amount of work, with many hours spent interviewing Pippa, who died in 2023 aged 102, and Jude says she would only consider doing it again if it were someone with a truly amazing tale to tell.<\/p>\n
![\"Jude]()
Jude is currently working on a screenplay. Photo \/ Sally Tagg<\/p>\n
In the meantime, she hasn\u2019t quite let go of Pippa\u2019s story of outwitting the Nazis in war-torn France. She optioned the film rights from Pippa\u2019s estate and is working on a screenplay. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m learning as I go along and screenwriting is very different to anything I\u2019ve ever done, but I do know Pippa\u2019s story so well, so I thought I might as well try.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jude also works three days a week at Auckland Grammar School, writing for their biannual magazine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being part of that community,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
As for what she\u2019ll do with the rest of her time, that remains to be seen. She and Graeme are almost empty nesters, with only Rosie, 22, at home as she finishes a conjoint degree in global studies and biology at the University of Auckland. Ella, 30, is working in animation and motion design in San Francisco, and Jack, 27, is a barman in New York.<\/p>\n
![\"\"]()
<\/p>\n
When they were young, her kids inspired her to produce content about the early stages of life. Now, reflecting on the loss of her beloved parents, she\u2019s drawn to people who are heading towards the end of their days. Jude has been involved with Summerset Retirement Villages, including doing interviews for their website, and enjoys talking to older people about their lives. That might be something she pursues further in some way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, it\u2019s those human stories that I love,\u201d she says. \u201cI like the idea of getting people to talk on video so they have something they can leave for their children. Or maybe there\u2019s something I can do with my nursing side to help people at that stage of life \u2013 that would be coming full circle for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll make opportunities somewhere,\u201d she adds. \u201cI always tell my kids the only constant in life is change and that\u2019s my mantra. Life always changes and who knows what will be next.\u201d<\/p>\n
The doco From Field to Front screens on TVNZ 1, Anzac Day at noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She initially became a nurse, got sidetracked by auditioning for the TV quiz show Sale of the Century…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,3246,8474,651,18509,380,199867,859,6259,156,19345,199868,71,1668,1861,13640,29118,424,9462,11692,111,139,69,1118,21041,42562,92924,6182,61,6859,6149,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-385239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-both","10":"tag-chapter","11":"tag-close","12":"tag-closes","13":"tag-decade","14":"tag-dobson","15":"tag-documentary","16":"tag-door","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-field","19":"tag-formats","20":"tag-from","21":"tag-front","22":"tag-history","23":"tag-important","24":"tag-jude","25":"tag-life","26":"tag-memoir","27":"tag-nearly","28":"tag-new-zealand","29":"tag-newzealand","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-of","32":"tag-peoples","33":"tag-pieces","34":"tag-preserving","35":"tag-stories","36":"tag-to","37":"tag-told","38":"tag-war","39":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}