Toy Soldier Collector Dave Bryant's (Anthony Survela's) Death
A good friend of mine died yesterday. Dave Bryant died at home when he suddenly collapsed yesterday morning. I had rung him before going away camping and he had asked me to bring some interesting toy soldiers for him to make molds from. When I returned three days later his wife Dorothy rang to inform me of his death. His son Christopher had tried to revive him with resuscitation.(She also told me that my stepfather, Tony had also gone to hospital with serious illness)
Dave was aged about eighty and I had known him around thirty years. He was always generous with giving me spare castings and lending me his molds. Dave had made hundreds, possibly thousands of molds, using his own secret formula and painted his figures, usually in sets of eight. He had three small sheds crammed with molds and displays and he was always grumbling that he did not have enough room but he always managed to cram in another shelf somewhere.
One of the sheds was his casting shed where all the molds and gas stove were. This was periodically invaded by possums and was a bit of a disaster area where particular molds would be lost sight of for months or years, despite Dave's alphabetical labeling of his piles of boxes.
Because of increasing ill-health, not aided by his being a smoker most of his life, Dave found it increasingly difficult to keep things in place so I entered into a massive clean up for him a few months ago. But Dave always managed to churn out a few more molds and some more painted sets in traditional toy soldier style. Despite going blind in one eye he always insisted on painting eyes and lips on the figures, although this was increasingly hit and miss.
Dave did not have much time for the concept of keeping original hollowcast, or plastics, for that matter, in original condition. After stripping the paint every thing was repainted so that no bare metal showed. However. the great bulk of his collection is made up of his castings, either copies of originals or altered figures. In any case Dave was a stickler for accuracy and always consulted his many uniform books, although he and I sometimes had a difference of opinion on the fine details of historical accuracy.
Dave was not very interested in making money from his hobby but in the joy of re-creating history in miniature and in this he succeeded in a big way.
Dave I salute you, as do all your many toy soldier creations and if there is an afterlife I hope it is full of toy soldiers.
(Pictures of Dave and some of his figures feature in some early posts)
DAVE WAS NOT DAVE
Some things you don't find out about a person until after his death. After visiting Dave's wife and son on the weekend I found out that his real name was Anthony Survela. Although half his family was of Scottish background the other half were Lithuanian and Russian migrants who moved to England. Anthony migrated to South Africa and later to Australia in the 1980s.
In Queensland, as a sign writer, Anthony was told that with a 'wog name' like Survela he could not amount to anything. When he moved to Victoria he found that he could not get work and believed this was due to his 'ethnic' name.
Of course people came to understand that Anthony was not a wog at all but a 'Pom'. He was insulted by this as well. Actually the word 'Pom' is not necessarily a derogatory word for Englishman and could be used neutrally or affectionately as well as negatively, the key difference being if it was prefaced with the word 'bloody'. The word, wog was originally mostly insulting, although in more recent decades it has gained a more positive meaning in Australia.
In any case Anthony could not get work and he and Dorothy were convinced it was because of his name so he adopted his wife's maiden name and changed his whole name. He then got work. All the toy soldier collectors were introduced to him as Dave Bryant and for the decades I have known him as this..
I must say I was surprised that Anthony may have been discriminated against for his continental European name, especially as 'Multiculturalism' had been the dominant ideology in government for some time. And although I despise the doctrine of multiculturalism I also despise the stupidity of that Queenslander who called Dave a wog.
Dave was aged about eighty and I had known him around thirty years. He was always generous with giving me spare castings and lending me his molds. Dave had made hundreds, possibly thousands of molds, using his own secret formula and painted his figures, usually in sets of eight. He had three small sheds crammed with molds and displays and he was always grumbling that he did not have enough room but he always managed to cram in another shelf somewhere.
One of the sheds was his casting shed where all the molds and gas stove were. This was periodically invaded by possums and was a bit of a disaster area where particular molds would be lost sight of for months or years, despite Dave's alphabetical labeling of his piles of boxes.
Because of increasing ill-health, not aided by his being a smoker most of his life, Dave found it increasingly difficult to keep things in place so I entered into a massive clean up for him a few months ago. But Dave always managed to churn out a few more molds and some more painted sets in traditional toy soldier style. Despite going blind in one eye he always insisted on painting eyes and lips on the figures, although this was increasingly hit and miss.
Dave did not have much time for the concept of keeping original hollowcast, or plastics, for that matter, in original condition. After stripping the paint every thing was repainted so that no bare metal showed. However. the great bulk of his collection is made up of his castings, either copies of originals or altered figures. In any case Dave was a stickler for accuracy and always consulted his many uniform books, although he and I sometimes had a difference of opinion on the fine details of historical accuracy.
Dave was not very interested in making money from his hobby but in the joy of re-creating history in miniature and in this he succeeded in a big way.
Dave I salute you, as do all your many toy soldier creations and if there is an afterlife I hope it is full of toy soldiers.
(Pictures of Dave and some of his figures feature in some early posts)
DAVE WAS NOT DAVE
Some things you don't find out about a person until after his death. After visiting Dave's wife and son on the weekend I found out that his real name was Anthony Survela. Although half his family was of Scottish background the other half were Lithuanian and Russian migrants who moved to England. Anthony migrated to South Africa and later to Australia in the 1980s.
In Queensland, as a sign writer, Anthony was told that with a 'wog name' like Survela he could not amount to anything. When he moved to Victoria he found that he could not get work and believed this was due to his 'ethnic' name.
Of course people came to understand that Anthony was not a wog at all but a 'Pom'. He was insulted by this as well. Actually the word 'Pom' is not necessarily a derogatory word for Englishman and could be used neutrally or affectionately as well as negatively, the key difference being if it was prefaced with the word 'bloody'. The word, wog was originally mostly insulting, although in more recent decades it has gained a more positive meaning in Australia.
In any case Anthony could not get work and he and Dorothy were convinced it was because of his name so he adopted his wife's maiden name and changed his whole name. He then got work. All the toy soldier collectors were introduced to him as Dave Bryant and for the decades I have known him as this..
I must say I was surprised that Anthony may have been discriminated against for his continental European name, especially as 'Multiculturalism' had been the dominant ideology in government for some time. And although I despise the doctrine of multiculturalism I also despise the stupidity of that Queenslander who called Dave a wog.
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