VIC: Ruxton quits RSL

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VIC: Ruxton quits RSL

MELBOURNE, Feb 2 AAP - Victorian RSL president Bruce Ruxton will quit his post in Juneafter 23 years and retire to Queensland.

The outspoken leader will be forced to sell his collection of military mementos tofund his retirement.

"I don't really want to, but I don't think I've got much choice," Mr Ruxton told theHerald Sun newspaper.

"The trouble with this job is that I've consumed all my capital.

"It's an honorary job. I don't have a salary and I don't have superannuation."

Mr Ruxton, 76, has been in ill health since he contracted viral pneumonia during avisit to Boer War sites in 2000.

He told the Herald Sun he would probably sell his house in Beaumaris and move northwith wife Jill to Noosa, where he has a holiday house.

"I've still got the wog - it really upsets me," he said. "I need the warmth, now."

Mr Ruxton saw action as a rifleman in Borneo with the 2/25 Infantry Battalion, thenserved with the occupation forces in Japan before joining the RSL.

He was elected to the RSL state executive 40 years ago.

Mr Ruxton built up a wholesale stationery business after his return to Victoria, butsold it when he was elected RSL state president in 1979.

AAP Herald Sun jt/rs

KEYWORD: RUXTON