LIFE has been anything but dull for East Fremantle great and former Dawesville MLA Arthur Marshall.
The 83-year-old has launched his memoir Never a Dull Moment, which explores his life as a tennis player and coach, media commentator and a member of parliament.
Despite a long career in tennis including playing twice at Wimbledon, Mr Marshall said his passion was football.
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READ NOW“My passion was playing football, my career was tennis,” he said. “I loved playing for East Fremantle and the camaraderie of the club.”
During his long tennis coaching career Mr Marshall taught 3500 students.
“I had to travel a long way to play A-grade tennis; I didn’t want the next generation to have to do that,” he said. “I wanted to take everything I learned in Europe and bring it here.”
The father of former journalist Dixie Marshall also turned his skills to the media and began penning a column for the Daily News.
“I fell into commentating very easily; the media is an important part of my life,” he said.
“If I had known what I do now I could easily have been a media guy rather then a tennis coach and entrepreneur.”
One of Mr Marshall’s proudest achievements was bringing hard- surfaced tennis courts to Australia.
“The biggest downfall in Australian tennis was not having enough hard courts,’’ he said.
After moving to Mandurah to retire, Mr Marshall was asked to run for State Parliament as part of the by-election in Fremantle, standing for the Liberal National Party.
“I had a 100 to one chance of winning,” he said.
“I actually won the primary vote but lost on preferences; I was the first Liberal to win that vote.”
In 1993, he won the seat of Murray, succeeding Keith Read.
Redistribution in 1994 saw the seat abolished and Mr Marshall was elected to the new seat of Dawesville in 1996.
He was re-elected in 2001 and retired in 2005.
Never a Dull Moment was launched in Perth and at Peel Thunder.
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