Diana Dick
Diana Jill Horsley was born in Brisbane on July 4, 1933, the middle child of Hazel and Keith Horsley. Her
paternal grandmother, Alice Nicklin, had as a young woman survived Queensland’s greatest maritime
disaster – the sinking of the Europe-bound passenger ship Quetta in Torres Strait in 1890. Members of
Diana’s family have always been keenly aware that if not for Alice’s ability to swim, none of them would be
here.
At the age of seven, during WW2, Diana and her older sister Frances were sent from Brisbane to board at St
Catherine’s school in Warwick. The Japanese army was moving towards Australia, and it was thought that
the children would be safer in the country.
Their father Keith was killed in what was then Malaya in 1942, aged 36.
Diana – or Dinny, as she was known in the family – later boarded at Glennie, in Toowoomba. For year 12,
she returned to Brisbane and went to Clayfield College, the school later attended by all four of her daughters
and three of her granddaughters.
Diana was extremely musical, having perfect pitch. Though she aced every piano exam, the violin was her
main instrument. At the age of 13, she had to stand in to lead the second violins at an orchestral performance
in Warwick. According to a newspaper review, she “rose to the occasion admirably”.
Diana, Frances and their brother David had started playing cards at a very early age. In the 1940s,
their mother, grandmother and great-aunt would ask one or other of them to make up a fourth in
Auction Bridge. By the time Diana enrolled in physiotherapy at Queensland University, she had
moved on to Contract Bridge. And was hooked. Rather a lot of Diana’s time at university was spent
playing cards. One day, when she was missing from class, the lecturer said, “Could someone go to
the refectory to fetch Miss Horsley. She will be playing bridge!”
Physiotherapy wasn’t really for Diana. Instead, she became a librarian. It was a job she enjoyed, but as was
the case for many women in those days, her employer required that she quit when she got married.
In 1958, two years after her wedding to Bill Cadzow, and a year after her first daughter Jane was born, the
family set off to spend two years in remote regions of Papua New Guinea. The areas were so remote that
food and supplies came in by ship, and there was little other contact with the outside world. It was part of
Bill’s job as a junior medical officer to go on six-week expeditions to surrounding villages, so Diana was
often left alone with Jane.
In early 1960, Diana, Jane and newly born Elizabeth followed Bill to England, where he had started studying
for admission to the Royal College of Surgeons.
The family spent three years in England, where Diana cared for a series of foster children. All her life, she
adored little kids.
By 1963, when Belinda was born, the family was back in Papua New Guinea, this time living in Port
Moresby. After a couple of years there, they returned to Brisbane, where Susan was born in 1967.
The daughters remember Diana as a loving mother in so many ways. She loved beautiful garments and she
had a great sense of style. When the girls were young, she made all their best dresses herself, running them
up on her old Singer sewing machine. She was an exuberant supporter of all their endeavours, dropping
everything when help was needed.
She accompanied them on interstate school trips – other girls thought Diana was really cool because she was
the least authoritarian adult by a mile. Unsurprisingly, Diana always seemed to be president of the P&C and
convenor of the tuckshop committee. School and Uni friends liked coming to the Cadzow home because
Diana was always so welcoming. There were lots of parties, and Diana’s annual Melbourne Cup lunch was
legendary.
It was in the early 80’s that Diana returned to bridge. In Diana’s words…
“I joined Northern Suburbs in 1981 when we played in the Hendra High School hall three times a week. I was
immediately invited to be the Saturday afternoon director, never thinking it would be the start of a 38-year
reign.
At that time Directors were also scorers – travellers were scored manually, balanced and checked, then pasted
on to a large spreadsheet at the next session for scrutiny. Results were sent to “The Courier Mail” and
published weekly. And then there was the cleaning of ashtrays…
I began the beginner’s classes in 1982. We played on the stage on Monday mornings, and I remember well
some of those players. I enjoyed all the beginner’s lessons for the next 33 years and among the thousand odd
players I have made many friends.
The Northern Suburbs clubrooms opened in 1991, and to the great joy of all the directors we bought a scoring
program and computer. We were all still terrible scorers, but Pat and Peter MacDonald gallantly tackled the
computer program and corrected our millions of mistakes.
As a group bridge players are generally regarded as an ‘older’ age group, physically not so fit, with some
young ones helping us in and out of cars. I wonder how many of you were there on a Saturday afternoon, when
during play a snake was spotted under the Director’s chair, which just so happened to be my chair! When the,
“Snake!” cry rang out the snake took off at great speed covering the length of the room, and then heading
back. As it moved through the room 95 players leapt onto their chairs in a Mexican wave. The speed and
agility was worthy of the Olympics. Who knows what we are capable of?
One player, Dorothy, remained seated – she missed the snake call and wondered what we were all doing!
I have had 39 years of enjoyment and entertainment at the Bridge Club.
Thank-you to all of you who made it such fun!”
At both the Toowong and Northern Suburbs clubs Diana showed enormous stamina and resilience. She
directed at Toowong for over 25 years. In that time she was also a dealer – starting off dealing in a corner of
the office, to eventually working in a dealing room with computer-generated hands.
At Northern Suburbs Diana was the Saturday Director for 38 years straight, an achievement that must stand as
some kind of record anywhere.
Toowong was special to Diana because she met her second husband there, Ross Dick, a geography lecturer at
Queensland University. Diana played an integral role in Toowong’s education program, as she did at Northern
Suburbs. She taught two beginner courses annually with classes of up to 40 students. She was so respected as
a teacher for her knowledge of the game, her clear and patient instruction and her gracious, approachable
manner.
She gave free lessons to kids in school holidays, and got such a kick out of it.
Diana also served as the President of the Northern Suburbs Bridge Club, and for her services over many years
she became an Honorary Life Member of both the NSBC and the Toowong Bridge Club.
Even with Diana’s bridge achievements, it was her personal approach that endeared her to so many players for
so many years. This is one player’s memory of Diana…
“Diana was such a peaceful person at the table. She welcomed all comers and meeting people seemed to be
an essential part of her life. I was always amazed how well she handled truculent players whose personalities
were so far away from her own.
She taught my Mum to play at age 80 and I despaired at the chances of my Mum merging into the huge NSBC
at that age. However, merge she did. Diana continued to monitor her progress with supported sessions and
friendly greetings. Some of my fondest memories are of playing Saturday afternoon bridge with 30 tables
and Diana managing the entire room!
My first Northern Suburbs congress was in 1984 at the Hendra State High School hall. The logistics of setting
up 50 tables, parking, feeding bridge players and organizing hand-dealt boards are staggering. In those days,
it was Saturday afternoon and evening followed by all day Sunday. The Sunday lunches were a feast with top
roasts, luxury salads and dessert. It went off without a hitch under Diana’s team of volunteers. Diana’s legacy
has always loomed large over NSBC and Queensland bridge. ”
For many people in the bridge world, Diana has come to represent the passing of an age, an era where hard
working and talented people of great organizational skills came to establish the bridge world we know today.
We have a lot to thank them for.
With Ross, Diana had the happiest years of her life. They married in 1990 and were together for three decades.
Up until the last few years, when they were both plagued by ill-health, they had a really glorious run. They
travelled together to bridge tournaments around the country. Both of them went on to become bridge Grand
Masters. They had many fantastic overseas trips. Ross adored Diana and Diana adored Ross. She loved Ross’s
children, as he did hers, and she regarded his grandchildren as her grandchildren, along with the nine produced
by her four daughters.
She was a simply amazing, doting grandmother. She thought all her grandkids were extraordinarily clever and
wondrously talented, and they thought of her as the heart and soul of the family. She was their confidante.
When her oldest grandson learned that he and his wife were expecting a baby, the first person he called was
Diana. Needless to say, she was over the moon. Diana’s daughter Susan and her family live in Shanghai, so of
course Diana visited there regularly. If the children were cast in the school play, Diana would pop over to
catch the performance!
Diana was also a wonderful mother-in-law. She had the warmest of relationships with all the girls’ partners,
and without exception they were huge fans of hers.
Diana was a most prolific reader. She had read just about every book in the Hamilton Library – many of them
more than once. When she moved to Chapel Hill she joined the Kenmore Library and swiftly worked her way
through their bookshelves. She also loved doing crossword puzzles.
Being the person she was, Diana never lost her appetite for trying new things. She was always having a go at
new recipes, and was always interested in the latest fashions. The other thing she never lost was her
enthusiasm. After regular trips to the movies with her daughters, she would rave to the other daughters about
the film they had just seen. Last year she went with a small family group to a Beatles tribute concert. Diana
loved it, recounting later to others that she and her granddaughter were up dancing a lot of the time. Her
daughters didn’t get out of their seats once, she reported incredulously.
Ross died earlier this year, and Diana missed him terribly. She loved her last home in Chapel Hill – partly
because it held so many great memories of her life with Ross, but also because of the friendship of great
neighbours. For most of their marriage, Diana had left the gardening to Ross because he was such a good
gardener. But in more recent years, she took over and got such pleasure from it. She loved to sit out the front
of the house with her cat Dorothy, gazing at her plants and the surrounding trees, watching the birds and
waving to passers-by.
Her own health had long been precarious, but because she had survived three unrelated forms of cancer, along
with other serious ailments, the family somehow thought she would go on forever.
And in a way, she will. Diana shaped the family, she will continue to inspire them, and she will stay with them
always. If only Diana, “Dinny”, could have read all the messages that flooded in to the family since she died,
because she was a modest person and didn’t think of herself as special.
But she absolutely was.
Vale Diana Dick.