A St Marys local has reached an exciting milestone this week as he celebrates his 99th birthday.
David Trist has lived in St Marys with his wife Betty for over five decades and on Tuesday turned 99, or in Trist’s words “entered his 100th year.”
Trist was born in Temora to schoolteacher parents and spent just over a decade there before moving to Jindabyne.
After graduating high school Trist got a job working in the Commonwealth Bank in 1941.
“I immediately got a job at the Commonwealth Bank,” Trist said.
“Mum gave me ten pounds and I travelled by train to Queenbeyan to a boarding house and after 12 months I returned home.
“I gave mum her ten pounds back and I bought a dinner set for nine pounds with my savings.
“I’ve still got one saucer left!”
Trist knew he was going to spend some time serving in the Army during World War 2 and prepared by working with the Veterans Defence Corps (VDC).
“So, when I got [to] 18 I then applied [to the Army] and the bank released me to go to the AIF (Australian Imperial Force).,” Trist said.
“I go to Sydney, and they [do] medical examinations etc and about 30 or 40 of us got on the train in Sydney and went to Cowra, which was the first recruit training battalion.
“We lined up and the Sergeant Major said, ‘Righto you fella’s, anybody with previous experience?’ and three of us stepped forward and the Sergeant Major, I still remember, said to one bloke who looked quite young, ‘What did you do son?’ and he replied, ‘I joined early, and I was over in Tobruk. They found out how old I was and sent me home again!’.
“‘What did you do?’ he said to me [and] I said, ‘Two years training in the VDC’ [and he said] ‘Oh alright well you… needn’t do all this preliminary training’. So, [I] quickly moved through the preliminary stages and went to a battalion in Sydney called the 18th battalion.”
Trist then spent three years in the Army, half of which was overseas.
When Trist returned to Australia and left the Army, he returned to working for the bank which had just opened a new branch in St Marys.
It was here he met his wife, Betty.
“I was first [sent] to Parramatta by the bank but then they said there is a new branch being opened at St Marys, we want you to go out,” Trist said.
“So, I came out and boarded at this place just down here… and up in the top room there were at least eight young blokes like me.
“There were floorboards missing and you had to be careful you didn’t put your foot down a hole when you got up at night.
“So, the bank had been open for a month or so and this man came and said ‘Oh, I believe you’re looking for board. There is room at our place’. That was [Betty’s] father. I went down and I married the landlord’s daughter.”
Trist and Betty first met in roughly 1948 and have been together since.
“We got married in Melbourne Street where we were both living with her parents in January 1950,” Trist said.
“We had the reception in the old house.”
After moving to different towns across NSW for his work with the bank, Trist and his family returned to St Marys in 1966-67 where they bought the house they still live in today.
Trist attributes his long life to a few things.
“I think you can control your own destiny quite a lot by not smoking and I don’t drink alcohol of any sort, with a good wife with whom [I’ve been with] 75 years or something and don’t end a sentence with… a preposition,” Trist said.
Trist’s 99th birthday was on Tuesday, September 3 which he spent with his family.
Emily Chate
Emily Chate joined The Western Weekender in 2024, and covers local news - primarily courts and politics. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, Emily has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and worked as a freelance journalist.