Phillip Scott Hamilton – Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt panel

Quilt panel, part of Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt, in memory of 'Phillip Scott Hamilton', cotton / paint, made in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1996 Rectangular quilt panel, landscape orientation. White satin background. Hand-painted sail boat, 'Defiance', in centre of blue rectangular cotton background. 'PHILLIP SCOTT HAMILTON' at top of blue panel with '18.12.52 - 12.11.92' at lower edge in gold paint. Three diver's badges appliquéd on background. White embroidered name badge 'HAMILTON P.S.' sewn on lower right corner.

The quilt was made in memory of Phillip Scott Hamilton (b.18.12.52 d. 12.11.92) in about 1996 by Dan Webb. "Phil Hamilton was a handsome, adventurous, intelligent, loveable, multi talented, sincere, funny, sensitive young man. I met Phil at the 'Young gay' group in1982 in Surry Hills, where every Saturday afternoon, young gay guys up to age 26 would meet in this safe space to socialise and connect and plan for events and form our gay families. Some of us were disenfranchised from our blood families, so these boys became our true families forming strong bonds of brotherhood against the hostile, confusing heterosexual world. Phil and I formed a strong friendship immediately around our love of the ocean, sailing , surfing, adventure and my yet undiscovered love of scuba diving, and he, a few years older than I, was my protective 'older brother'. Phil had served in the Australian Royal Navy as a clearance diver, and on leaving had purchased a 10 metre classic timber 1950s 'Sparkman and Stevens' cutter. When I met him, he was living on his beloved yacht and passionately, slowly refurbishing it, with a dream of a 'sailing the world' adventure. After his invitation to be a crew member, I moved onto his yacht 'Defiance' and we proceeded to renovate in earnest for the planned adventure. I spent a year living and working on Defiance with Phil, berthed at the former abandoned ANL terminal at Mort Bay. In between the hard work of refitting this beautiful old boat we sailed around the harbour, outside Sydney heads. Phil taught me to scuba dive right there off the side of the wharf in murky Sydney Harbour! This began my love of scuba diving and I went on to be a founding member of SUBS (Sydney Underwater Buddies), the first Australian GLBTQ Scuba diving group. Our other adventeres included surfari holidays on the north coast of NSW and Southport and once an unforgettable road trip to Cairns in his old yellow Renault '10'. He was an experienced rally driver and sometimes drove the old beast as if we were in a rally. We fished, dived, surfed, snorkelled, swam, laughed and shared the driving night and day, singing loudly to the radio playing the hits of those days. Not only was Phil an amazing master craftsman, passionately and painstakingly shaping the timber for replacing parts of his yacht. He was a welder and a shipwright and tackled the plumbing , electricals, mechanicals, fibreglassing, painting repairing rigging, spars, staunchons, lines and a million other things involved in the refurbishment of a classic yacht. Whiile teaching me the basics of these. I am eternally grateful to him for this. He could whip up a tasty meal and played a bit of acoustic guitar, once writing and singing his own beautiful, sad and heartfelt composition for the end of a relationship with a lover. We remained great friends after I moved off Defiance but it was increasingly obvious that his dream was never to be realised due to the massive costs of materials and labour when he needed to employ tradesmen, slipway costs, general berthing or mooring costs after the free berths at the ANL terminal were banned. Sadly when Phil became HIV + ,he struggled with the reality of this and that his dream would never be realised . I continued to help him renovate Defiance but Phil's spark had gone out. When living on his beloved boat was not an option due to his health he moved to a rented house with his partner. He would laugh and call himself a 'landubber '. When he passed away I created the panel, painting a simple painting of his yacht and we also stitched his navy patches around the panel befitting the legacy he left . I am forever grateful that Phil was my teacher, mentor, big brother, mate In my life and I was devestated by his passing. His spirit lives on in all that we shared and all that he taught me". Dan Webb, 2021