A family tragedy

The inscription of “killed in motor accident” on the McElroy family headstone
barely tells the story of a family plagued by a series of disasters.
George McElroy and his wife Cathrine, their kids and their young employee were on
their way home from blackberry picking near Ongarue on February 25, 1927.
George was a farmer and contractor. He had been driving for 20 years and held a
taxi licence as well.
But at the Ongarue level crossing he had just started to cross in his five seater car
when the northbound train came through the crossing.
The impact threw the car 30 metres and most of the passengers out of the car.
George and Cathrine along with baby Eugene and five year old Doreen were killed
while Colleen who was two and four-year-old Patsy survived as did 19 year old
employee Alice Gospodnevitch.
The train managed to stop and passengers jumped out to help and found little
Colleen and Patsy emerging from among the wreckage.
The train driver said he never saw the car and it was noted in the inquest that the
crossing was considered a dangerous one.
Alice later said she had never seen or heard the oncoming train and did not think
George had either, as the car never stopped. However she was unable to remember
the accident itself.
The train driver Herbert Dick said he had been slowing down coming into the
crossing and was blowing the whistle and had only seen the car at the last moment.
The inquest concluded the deaths were accidental saying George had taken an
unnecessary risk.
George was born on November 9, 1888 to Owen and Mary in Halcombe. Records
say he married Kathleen Francis King in 1920 - who may have been called Cathrine
- George had a sister called Kathleen.
Owen had come to New Zealand in 1879 from Northern Ireland and had been one of
the pioneering settlers in the area working in the flax and saw milling industry. He
had married Mary in 1881 and was a member of the Oroua County Council for 27
years.
George had been part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and was injured - a
shot to his right thigh.
The McElroy family had quite a run of bad luck.
Only a year before George’s mother and sister Eileen had been in a motor accident
in Palmerston North after a collision with another car. His brother had also been in
an accident where the truck he was driving hit a young man who died.
His father Owen had been badly injured only a few weeks before after being kicked
by a horse.
Meanwhile another brother had his business and home destroyed by fire.
George and his family are buried in the Taumarunui Old Cemetery.​