Hon. Paul M Guest KC ASM OAM OLY
Banks Rowing Club (VIC)
We are deeply saddened by the death of Paul on 15th March 2026. Quite apart from the many other aspects of his life in which he excelled, he was a giant in the sport of rowing. A triple Olympian, Australian senior team member, five time King’s Cup winner, Concept 2 row erg world champion (twice), let alone being a superb rowing administrator, coach and benefactor. A gifted
Paul commenced rowing at Wesley College Melbourne but was for most of his schools day a track specialist. He was enticed back to rowing by a call from friend Ian “Porky” Douglas to try out for the Melbourne University eight in 1958. By 1959 he gained a place in the Victorian King’s Cup squad and in 1960 a place in the Olympic rowing team, partnering Neville Howell. His comments on equipment at those Games was clear. “The boat was a barge – very little thought was given in those days to equip the rowers adequately.”
After a year off in 1961 to further his law degree, he returned in 1962 to join the Alan “Jake” Jacobsen stable at Banks Rowing Club. In that year, Jake took his crew all the way to a gold medal at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth and 5th place at the first World Rowing Championships in Lucerne.
One of the great crews in which he rowed was the 1968 Olympic Pair with David Ramage. Unbeaten in Australia, it has been aptly described as one of the finest pair oared crews Australia has ever produced. However, in the semi-final at Mexico, whilst in a commanding position and just short of the finish line, David partially collapsed suffering oxygen deprivation in the high altitude and they were relegated to the small final by 1.18 seconds in a time that would have won the other semi-final. They won the small final some 6 seconds faster than the Gold medal winners despite being forced to race it against their wishes and without preparation.
It is this experience that has led many in the sport to label Paul as the unluckiest rower in Australia. A superb athlete with the rowing skills and physique to match, he was let down internationally by equipment, training methods at the Games in 1960 and 1964, and hampered by no coaching in 1968. He should have been an Olympic Champion in 1968.
Paul used to say “I love rowing; it is the sport of kings. Those who have never rowed could never understand.” His unqualified love of the sport was matched by being a constant student of it. A discussion with him was never short and always detailed.
Paul continued to be a very active as a rowing administrator, coach, benefactor to his club, successful masters rower and Chairman of the Rowing Australia Appeals Tribunal. He was the first 70 year old in history to break 7 minutes 2K ergo and held the world record for 70-74 year category at 6.56.2. He was also the worlds best over 1000 meters but Concept 2 only classify the 2K. Then he was world record holder in the 74-79 category.
Subsequently, he went onto be the record holder in the 80-84 year old category with a 2000m score of 7:26.6. This record still stands.
Paul was also President of the Banks Rowing Club. In his role of Chairman of Rowing Australia Appeals Tribunal, he made significant and perpetual changes to the great benefit of the sport.
Needless to say he was a life member of his Club and Rowing Australia.
Little known to many rowers was that he was a great art benefactor. He collected a superb collection of modern Australian art which was then gifted to the Bendigo Art Gallery. Paul excelled in so many areas of life, a great Australian.
1968 Olympic Pair - Paul in bow seat
The following tribute was provided by Sam Brown, President of Banks Rowing Club, to the members of his club.
VALE – Paul Marshall Guest OAM QC – Life Member and Past President, Banks Rowing Club
8 March 1939 – 15 March 2026
Paul’s rowing career began at Wesley College, where he raced in the First VIII in 1956 (5th) and 1957 (5th). In the winning crew for Geelong College on both occasions was David Ramage, but more of their association later.
While Paul’s rowing started inauspiciously, it was in athletics that Paul excelled as a 400-metre runner. He won the APS title becoming the first schoolboy to break 50 seconds for the distance.
After leaving school, Paul focussed on his athletics and tried on three occasions to beat Kevin Gosper for the chance to represent Australia at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. Despite Paul’s best effort he could not. By then Paul was studying law, having found that medicine was not for him. He was then convinced by Ian Douglas (stroke of the winning 1957 Victorian Kings Cup crew) to come and row for Melbourne University.
Paul gained selection (in the seven seat) in his first Victorian Kings Cup crew in 1960 with the crew coming third. The Australian selectors agreed to send a coxed pair to the Rome Olympic Games, and Paul long with Neville Howell (Banks) and cox Ian Johnston (also Banks) were selected. Notwithstanding their best efforts the crew did not make it past the repechages. Paul later said that they didn’t have a chance with their boat weighing in at more than 50 pounds (25 kgs) heavier than the other boats.
Again, it was a phone call from Ian Douglas that convinced Paul to come and row at Banks, and so he did. It would change his life forever. The Banks Senior Eight of 1962 (Bow Ian Douglas, 2 Brian Vear, 3 Jack Donaldson, 4 Charles Lehman, 5 Dushan Stankovich, 6 Terry Davies, 7 Paul Guest, Stroke Neville Howell, cox Graham Norton and Coach Alan Jacobsen) would go onto win the Victorian Championship Eight, the first time since 1898, and form the basis of the victorious Victorian Kings Cup crew (Douglas, Lehman, Stankovich, Graeme McCall (Mercantile), Martin Tomanovits (Mercantile), Davies, Guest, Howell and Norton. In winning the Kings Cup the crew was selected to represent Australia in the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, with the crew winning on the line from New Zealand. The crew also represented Australia at the first World Rowing Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1962 coming 5th.
The early to mid 1960s were the glory days for the Club, with the Senior Eight winning State Championships through to 1966 and forming the basis of the Kings Cup crews. Paul was in the winning 1964 Victorian crew which represented Australia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. Alan Jacobsen was a significant contributor to the 1962 and 1964 crews personally acquiring the boats for the crews to use. While the 1964 boat was good, it was not as good as the boats used by other National crews, and the crew used the second United States boat in the petite final and came eighth overall.
After leading the walkout of Banks members from the 1966 Kings Cup Squad following the non-selection of Alan Jacobsen as the winning Senior Eight Coach, Paul was ultimately selected in the eight to represent Australia at the second World Championships in Bled, Yugoslavia, with the crew placing 10th.
Paul had been rowing in crews with David Ramage (including the 1964 Olympic eight) since 1963 when David transferred to Banks. In 1967 they teamed up in the coxless pair and won the 1967 Victorian and New South Wales titles and the 1968 Australian coxless pair and coxless four, as well as the winning the 1968 Head of the Yarra as part of the Banks Senior Eight.
As a result of their outstanding results, they were selected as the coxless pair to represent Australia at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. The Mexico Games were held at an altitude in excess of 2,000 metres. Paul and David knew of only one way to race and that was hard from the start. In the semi-final they lead most of the way down the course, but the high altitude effected David to such an extent that he was unable to finish the race and was rushed off to hospital afterwards to be placed on a IV drip. Unfortunately, Paul and David came 4th by 1.18 seconds and missed out in a place on the final. Paul and David won the petite final (7th overall) with controlled rating for the first 1,000 metres and then brought it home over the second 1,000 metres and in doing so recorded a time that was seven seconds faster than the gold medal winning time.
Paul and David were ultimately selected in the 1969 Victorian Kings Cup crew, but only after David Boykett threatened the selectors to withdraw as coach if they were not selected. The crew would go onto comprehensively beat New South Wales, which was largely unchanged from the crew that won the silver medal in Mexico. They would repeat the performance in 1970 following which Paul was selected in the Australian Eight for the 1970 World Championships in St Catherines, Canada, with the crew coming 5th.
Paul would go onto coach the second crew at his alma mater, Wesley College, to a win in 1971, and was taken to task by the school on learning that Paul had supplied alcohol to the crew to celebrate their win. After an unsuccessful comeback in 1972, and with a young family Paul retired from rowing, although he did coach the 1975 Victorian Kings Cup crew, with the crew coming 3rd.
All the while Paul had progressed his legal career, becoming a very successful barrister specialising in family court matters. In 2001 he was appointed as a judge in the Family Court and retired after 10 years. Paul presided over many high profile cases and made many defining judgements.
In 1993 Paul got together with a number of his fellow Old Wesley Collegians to row in Masters races for the Alan Mitchell Club.
In late 1997 the FISA World Masters Rowing Regatta was held in Adelaide, and a Mens D8 (average age 50 or older) was formed with Paul in Bow at 63 and Ian Allen (64 and also Wesley Old Collegian) at 2 and with Chris Shinners at 7, Jim Lowe at Stroke and Bill Webster (Mercantile as cox). The crew held off a fast finishing Austrian crew to win the race, and so started an extremely successful Masters combination that would continue for a further 18 years.
Paul was in the five seat of the first two Victorian Eights to win the Interstate Masters Eights Championship in 2002 and 2003. Many Head of the Yarra wins would follow and a multitude of Australian Masters Rowing Championships and three wins at the head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.
We all know Paul was absolutely “driven” in everything that he did. In 2002, despite being hospitalised with a debilitating back injury following a collision with a scull on the Yarra (Paul was in the bow seat of a coxless four), Paul effectively discharged himself from hospital to compete at the 2002 World Masters Games Rowing in Ballarat, winning gold medals as part of the Banks Masters F8+ and E4+ defeating arch enemy, the Kent Mitchell Club from the USA. And in 2014 notwithstanding a fracture patella willed himself to compete at the Henley Masters Regatta in the UK going on to win the G8+ and G4+.
The winning Masters E (55 year old) Coxed Four at the 2002 World Masters Games – Jim Lowe, Chris Shinners, Ian Allen, Paul, with cox Julie Karge
Paul succeeded Brian Vear as President of the Club in 2007, the first non-banker to hold the position. Paul had a vision for Banks to be a High Performance Club and recruited Nick Lloyd (who was also coaching at Melbourne Grammar) as coach of the Men’s program. While this resulted in some short-term success and athletes being selected in Australian Underage teams, he could not gain any support from Rowing Australia or Rowing Victoria. The appointment by Paul of Nick Mitchell in mid 2015 saw a dramatic change for the better in the Club’s on-water performance.
Paul retired as President at the Annual General Meeting in 2015 and was awarded Life Membership of the Club at that time. Paul was also awarded Life Membership of Rowing Australia as a result of his 10 years as Chair of the Rowing Australia Appeals Tribunal.
Also in 2015 Paul rowed his last race, this time at the FISA World masters Rowing Regatta in Hazelwinkel, Belgium. Fittingly the crew comprised David Ramage, Paul, Chris Shinners, Jim Lowe and cox Bill Webster, beating arch-rivals Mosman Rowing Club in the G (average age 65 or older) coxed four by over 10 seconds.
Paul was not done yet, for in 2019 he set the world 2,000 metre rowing ergometer record for 80-84 year olds, at 7 minutes 26.6 seconds, a record that still stands. Paul had previously set the 70-74 and 75-79 world records.
Paul’s contribution to the Club was not done yet either, for in 2022 he committed to establishing a foundation to financially support aspiring athletes in their rowing careers. At the time of his rowing for Australia there was no financial support for Australian teams, and virtually all expenses were met through the generosity of others, principally Alan Jaconbsen. The lack of financial support was deeply ingrained in Paul’s memory, and he wanted to ensure future generations of Banks High Performance athletes have access to funds, by way of grants or scholarships to enable them to compete nationally and internationally in the furtherance of their rowing careers.
And so the Paul Guest High Performance and Scholarship Foundation was formed in 2022 and since then Paul made exceptionally generous donations totalling $500,000.
Paul was an avid art collector and had many friends in the art community. He generously donated over 200 works of art to the Bendigo Art Gallery and sponsored an annual drawing prize.
Over the past few years Paul enjoyed regular breakfast catch-ups with Ian Allen, Warwick Teasdale, Chris Shinners and Jim Lowe with whom he raced for many years in Masters events here and overseas.
We have lost a man who was fiercely determined and had an impressive record, who loved and cared deeply for the Club and the state of rowing in Victoria and Australia, who provided us with a myriad of memories and was very highly respected in legal circles and the art scene. There will never be another Paul Marshall Guest.
Our thoughts are with Paul’s partner, Janette, and Paul’s children Nick and Alex, and their families and friends and those whose lives he touched at this very sad time.
A celebration of Paul’s life will be held with details to be announced shortly.
Sam Brown – President
Some rowing highlights
1959 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship - Emergency
1960 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship seven seat - Third
1960 – Olympic Games – Men’s Coxed Pair bow – Eliminated in repechage
1962 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship seven seat - First
1962 – British Empire & Commonwealth Games – Men’s Eight five seat – Gold
1962 – World Championships – Men’s Eight five seat - Fifth
1963 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship three four seat - First
1964 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship five seat - First
1964 – Olympic Games – Men’s Eight five seat – Eighth
1965 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship seven seat - Second
1966 – World Championships – Men’s Eight five seat - Tenth
1968 – Olympic Games – Men’s Coxless Pair bow – Seventh
1968 – Australian Olympic Rowing Team Captain
1969 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship four seat - First
1970 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship four seat - First
1970 – World Championships – Men’s Eight five seat - Fifth
1972 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship seven seat - Third
1975 – Interstate Men’s Eight Championship coach – Third
2000 – Awarded the Australian Sports Medal.
2011 – Inducted into the Victorian Rowing Hall of Fame
2019 - Concept 2 World 2K record 80-84 Category - current holder
Andrew Guerin
2011 (updated March 2026 following Paul's death)