The Crimean war was complicated - part territory, part religious war between the Russian Tzar and Napoleon.
It was one of the first conflicts that used modern warfare - like explosive shells, and modern communication like telegraph. It was also one of the first to be written about extensively with the information available for all to read. It was a turning point for the Russian Empire - beginning what would be doubts about its strength and influence until many years later it slid into revolution. We have many veterans buried around New Zealand - and there are even some from the Crimean War - fought between 1853 and 1856. One was George Reid. He was born to John and Sarah in Dover, Kent, England. He went to sea young, serving on a man of war ship as a powder boy in the Crimean War. Powder boys, or powder monkeys, ferried gunpowder from the powder magazine in the ship's hold to the artillery pieces, either in bulk or as cartridges, to minimise the risk of fires and explosions. In 1869 he left service and came to New Zealand where he ended up living in Meeanee and Taradale, where he met and married his wife Brigid Doyle. In the early days he was caretaker of the Napier Park racecourse. After this he worked in the employ of the Hawke’s Bay County Council for over 30 years. During this period he spent much of his time on county work in the backblocks. Living away from home so much with a good deal of hardship he was nevertheless in part responsible for some of the development which took place in the back country roads. A private man, he took a keen interest in different branches of sport, he was highly respected by the many people with whom he came in contact. He died on May 12, 1934 at his home in Meeanee aged 92 and is buried in Taradale Cemetery.
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It was early December and a clear sky when a sudden explosion rocked Whanganui.
The people of the city in 1908 had no idea what it could possibly be but it was heard for miles. In fact people - already wary because of events in Europe - had wondered if it might be a submarine off the coast. But residents of Castlecliff had seen something bright fall from the sky and it was quickly believed to be a meteorite. Meteorites are actually pretty rare, and it’s even rarer to find ones that were seen to fall to earth. So when the report came in that something was discovered on the Hawken farm in Mokoia it was immediately interesting. William Syme of Eastown showed a piece of it to George Reginald Marriner - the curator of the Whanganui museum, saying it was a piece of the meteorite. He, with three other men, had been working on the railway, near a creek, when thev heard a crackling noise overhead, like a volley from rifles, The next development was the sound of something falling near the Hawkins's estate, into a pine plantation. Another piece seemed to fall among some dense bush by a steep hank above a creek. A third piece was heard falling shortly afterwards, like a piece of rocket. The explosion, which must have occurred at a great height, had distributed the pieces. It fell into the creek with a splashing, hissing sound, like that produced by the immersion in water of hot iron. The other workman also saw the phenomenon, and saw a flash like a tongue of flame, and what he took to be steam. The noise was heard distinctly by a number of people in Mokoia. Marriner subsequently visited the spot, saw the hole, and found two large pieces of meteoric stone embedded which he extracted and put on display. But any fame he might have had was cut tragically short. Marriner had been born in Gravesend in Kent 1879 to James and Anna and they came to New Zealand in early 1880. Always a keen scientific student, he left school and was appointed assistant to a professor of biology at Canterbury University. In 1908 he was appointed curator of the public museum in Whanganui. He was a member of the New Zealand scientific expedition to the sub-Antarctic islands and was a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society of Great Britain. But at only age 30 he developed appendicitis and needed an operation. It did not go well and a second, then third operation was performed but he was unable to recover and died on February 25, 1910. He is buried in Linwood Cemetery. Ethel Mary Lewis was a tiny force of nature, so much so that she earned a nickname that is now inscribed on her grave.
Born in 1880, and called Mary, she was the daughter of clergyman Reverend Thomas Lewis of Monmouthshire and Emma Watson of Over Whitacre, Warwickshire. Her maternal grandfather was an architect. In 1901 Mary was away from home training to be a nurse at Bristol General Hospital. The year her father died in 1912 , she emigrated from England to New Zealand and was employed by the Native Nursing Service. There she gained experience nursing in Otaki amongst the Maori population, where she was known as 'The Little Nurse' since she was only 4 ft 11 in tall. In 1914, she had returned to England and when war broke out she joined the Queen Alexandra nursing service and volunteered to go overseas. Lewis began nursing at a Belgian field hospital then went on to an Antwerp hospital which had to be evacuated when the Germans arrived. After a short stint back in England she went to Serbia - right in the trenches on the Bulgarian frontier where she received a slight shrapnel wound to her shoulder. That did not stop her saving the life of a Serbian officer. When the time came for the great retreat of the army in 1915, she and another nurse organised taking 400 patients through the mountain passes of Albania on foot. The patients however were in bad shape and none survived. But the hospital staff managed to make it, finally reaching safety. She was awarded the Serbian Order of the White Eagle, Order of St Sava 3rd class, the Serbian retreat medal and the Royal Red Cross. It was during the war she was given the nickname Little Sister. So heroic was she during her time in the war that she also ended up with the 1914 - 1915 Star, Victory and General Service Medals, and the Croix de Guerre Belgium. Mary was not serving with our troops and so never received a New Zealand award for looking after wounded New Zealand soldiers in England as she did not serve on the New Zealand front line. After leaving Serbia, Lewis nursed in Woking, England, before returning to Otaki in 1916. In 1917 she joined the New Zealand Army Nursing Service. In 1919 she retired from military service and returned to nurse as a civilian in New Zealand until 1922 when she returned to England to look after her widowed mother and then work as a district nurse for the Worcestershire County Nursing Association. She died at Pershore Cottage Hospital in 1966. Lewis’ name is the first in the current volume of St Leonard’s burial register and her small gravestone. She is buried in St Leonard’s Cemetery in Newland. On the small gravestone is her nickname from the war - Little Sister. Walter Gabriel Rossiter’s jewellery and pawnshop was well known in Dunedin. There were definitely lots of pretty shiny things inside.
And it had caught the eye of a couple of thieves - including one who specialised in stealing jewellery. Rossiter was in his shop on May 11, 1931, removing items from the display window to the safe just before midnight when two men came in. Immediately one of them jumped the 73-year-old, punching him to the ground and then began to throttle him while the other man began snatching up rings. Rossiter’s wife Jane came downstairs from their home above their George St shop and was knocked unconscious. Across the street a watchmaker heard the noise and rushed over armed with a screwdriver and forced his way into the shop. One of the burglars rushed upstairs and jumped from a window but the other man was captured. He turned out to be Thomas William Wilson. In court, the judge called it a callous and brutal crime. In the six months before Wilson had stolen goods worth £4,791, of which £3,000 in jewellery had not been recovered, the proceeds of which, most likely, he hoped to enjoy when released. Wilson was concerned in the theft of jewellery from Dawson's shop in George St, , theft of jewellery from W. J Paterson’s, and theft from R. S. Black and Son’s and the Hudson Fur Company. Wilson in a long statement, which his counsel read to the court. In that he outlined his history from boyhood and his entry into crime, which he claimed was the result of his environment and association with “ old hands ” when he first went to gaol as a youth. Wilson was sentenced to five years jail but he wasn’t there long - he escaped after complaining about stomach troubles, being taken to hospital and then simply walked out the front door. It would be years later that it was found he had stowed away on a ship to America, where he couldn’t stop his criminal habits and was jailed for burglary - this time getting 15 years. Wilson did a bargain with the American authorities - he would leave the country rather than serve out his time. So in 1936 he arrived back in New Zealand aboard the Mariposa - called himself Mr W Henry. The police weren’t fooled though and he was arrested, protesting that he had given up his life of crime. A judge didn’t quite believe him and jailed him - adding a year to his sentence for his escape. Wilson then went to the Court of Appeal claiming that the time spent after he had escaped should be counted as part of his sentence. It was a technical legal point that had to do with the fact that the warrant to detain him had run out and there was nothing in the law to say that he could be held past this point. The Court of Appeal rather reluctantly agreed and his sentence came to an end in 1938. Wilson then passed into history without further notice. Rossiter however died a few years later and is buried in Andersons Bay Cemetery in Dunedin. The SS Rangitane left Auckland on November 24, 1940 with 14,000 tonnes of cargo worth millions of dollars and 111 passengers.
A Royal Main ship, she was heading to Britain via the Panama Canal through seas made doubly dangerous by the prospect of encountering German ships and submarines. On board were servicemen and radar technicians - tactically important to the war effort. She also carried butter, pork, mutton and cheese, along with 45 bars of silver bullion valued at over £2 million. The SS Holmwood had been sunk by German raiders only a couple of days before but the crew of the Rangitane knew nothing about that and as they approached the 300 mile mark three days later, the ship was confronted by the German ships Komet and Orion. With them was a support boat Kulmerland. It was 3.30am when Captain H L Upton was called to the bridge - in his pyjamas. The Rangitane was ordered to stop and not make radio contact with anyone. But Upton ordered QQQ to be sent - basically code for a suspicious ship to be broadcast. The Germans reacted by jamming the signals and began firing on the Rangitane. For several moments there was chaos and neither side knew what was going on, but when Upton realised his message had been received he ordered the surrender of the Rangitane. He quickly ordered documents like code books and key engine parts to be destroyed, determined to limit the German’s prize. Another code was sent on an emergency transmitter - RRR - raider attack. In the confusion the Rangitane had its steering damaged by the shelling. Despite his surrender, the Germans continued firing and Upton wanted to fire upon them but was unable. So he had to order everyone abandon ship. Sixteen people, eight passengers and eight crew died. The survivors were put on to the German ships. By this time the Rangitane was on fire and sinking, but the Komet fired again on the failing ship, sending it to the bottom. The German ships couldn’t hang around however, the cool head of Captain Upton meant his radio messages had got through and allied aircraft would be on their way. The Rangitane was one of the largest passenger ships sunk during World War II. The crowded conditions of the captured prisoners meant the civilians were to be offloaded, which ended up being on the tiny island of Emirau off New Guinea. The military prisoners were taken back to prisoner of wars camps in Germany. Upton was later released and returned to England. Many of the prisoners felt the humane way they were treated was due to Upton’s calming civilising influence and impeccable behaviour. Among the 111 passengers and a crew of 201 were 22 men and women who had acted as escorts for British children sent to Australia, 14 stewards and 13 stewardesses from a Polish ship, and 20 members of the crew of another British ship who were returning to Britain. The bodies of those killed during the sinking have not been recovered and share Rangitane’s watery grave. Eliza and Thomas Bell were on holiday - passing through Wellington on their way home to Nelson.
They had been persuaded to stay one extra day by friends they had visited. At 5.30pm on May 3, 1907, they got on one of the iconic Wellington trams heading from Brooklyn into town. There were only a few onboard and driver John Reay had reached a steep portion at Nairn Street. As they reached the top the tram began to go backwards, out of control. The front of the troller, where the overhead lines were connected snapped off, leaving the tram running down the hill and derailing, toppling over on its side. Nearly everyone was injured, but Eliza was crushed beneath the tram. In the still evening it made a huge noise. "A roaring noise, a rumbling and finally a tremor of earth made house-holders near the tramway line on the Brooklyn Heights fear that an earthquake had visited them last evening . . . the cause of the disturbance was a large electric car . . . which left the rails while it was whirling down at terrific speed and plunged over a bank." was reported by the Evening Post. People rushed to help and other injured passengers helped free Eliza who was pinned under the tram. It took more than an hour in darkness for equipment to be brought that let a group of men lift the tram enough to get Eliza out.. But she was too injured to survive. Her husband Thomas had managed to hold on and not be thrown from the car. An inquest was held a few days later. It appeared the tram had started rolling down the hill after backing into a passing loop, possibly because the driver had left the reversing lever in the wrong position. It was a steep section of line - often thought to be too steep - and the tram's brakes had failed. Thomas told the inquest the driver had stuck with the car until it fell but he was only able to be there a short time. He spent nearly three weeks in hospital recovering. It was his third bereavement in his family, he and Eliza had lost two children. Eliza was born on October 6, 1862, to John and Eliza Sheat in Nelson. She had married Thomas, a sheep farmer, in 1886. They had eight children but two had not survived to adulthood. Thomas was a member of the Inangahua County Council and a successful farmer on the Four Eiver Plain, near Murchison, but has lost a considerable amount of money in gold dredging. He has made a study of ambulance work, and there being no medical man within 70 miles of the township, had set many a broken limb and relieved the suffering of the injured and sick in the wild bush district where they lived. Eliza is buried in the Richmond Cemetery. Photo from Te Papa’s collection. When you think of Napier, you think Art Deco.
The buildings - a great many of which arise out of the ruins of the 1931 earthquake, have a look - as does the Marine Parade, a lot of which came about after the earthquake as well. And there are a number of little spots that are special. One is the sundial - given to Napier by former Gisborne mayor James Robert Kirk who was impressed by the spirit of rehabilitation of the city. The sundial - and a great many buildings are the work of James Augustus Louis Hay - who is the architect behind Napier’s “look” Louis was born in Akaroa, Banks Peninsula on January 14, 1881 to James Hay and his wife Frances. The family moved to Napier in 1895 where Louis went to Napier Boys’ High and then joined the architectural firm of C T Natusch. He shifted jobs a number of times before being employed by the Department of Lands and Survey in Invercargill. By 1906 he had returned to Napier and within three years had set up his own firm. Initially most of his work was residential homes, often for wealthy landowners looking for grand villa-style homes. In 1917 he joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and went to training at the Trentham Military Camp where a year later in September 1918 he married Margaret Ross McPherson. A member of the camp orchestra, he had stayed at the camp just long enough to avoid travelling on a troopship whose outbreak of influenza decimated the troops. After the war he returned to Napier and his work. He was quickly becoming noticed for the quality of it. He was working on the St Paul’s Presbyterian Church at the time of the great earthquake - it was destroyed. But worse was to come for Louis, his beloved wife Margaret was seriously injured. He became a member of the Napier Reconstruction Committee and established a group of architects to cope with the amount of work. In particular he designed a number of reinforced concrete structures for the new look of the city, incorporating what were then the principles of earthquake resistant construction. And he added the art deco touches. His buildings include the AMP building, the beautiful National Tobacco Company building, the Hawke’s Bay Art Gallery and Museum and the Napier club among others. Louis also had a plan for a Marine Parade entertainment centre and Albion Hotel that were never built. But when former Gisborne mayor J R Kirk gifted Napier with a sundial it was designed by Louis. There are quotes on the dial “Calamity is a Man’s True Touchstone,” “Smiles equal sunshine in helping folks along,” and “Serene I stand amidst the flowers to tell of the passing of the hours.” As well as an architect Louis was a boat builder, oarsman, water skier and actor and a noted flautist who had once considered a musical career. His figure was a familiar one in Napier - in summer he wore white suits, bow ties and a panama hat and was often accompanied by his fox terrier Spark. His health deteriorated in the 40s and he died in Napier on February 4, 1948, and is buried at Park Island Cemetery. Lieutenant John Moncrieff and Captain George Hood got into their Ryan B-1 Brougham plane - called Aotearoa - in Sydney on January 10, 1928, and took off intending to make the first trans-tasman flight to New Zealand.
They were expected to do the 2335 km distance in around 14 hours. Somewhere between there and here, they vanished. They were late taking off, but 32 minutes later the officer of the watch on the ship Maunganui heard the engine, although he could not see the plane. Moncrieff and Hood were planning to head to Farewell Spit. They were supposed to send out a radio signal tone for five minutes every quarter hour but the schedule was not adhered to. Twelve hours after they took off, and when they should have been about 320 km off the New Zealand coast, the signals from the plane stopped. A crowd had gathered at Farewell Spit and as anxiety increased, spotlights were used to light the sky, to no avail. In Wellington, at the Trentham racecourse where they were expected to land their wives, Laura Hood and Dorothy Moncrieff had waited for hours. Sightings of the plane began to come in over the next two days. Many claimed to see the lights of the Aotearoa - but in fact it had no lights. Many also thought it might have made landfall somewhere else. Searches were started with the hope of finding them on land or wreckage at sea. Nothing was found. The Aotearoa was the first plane to go missing near New Zealand. John Moncrieff had been born in Scotland in 1899 coming to New Zealand aged 16 training as a motor mechanic before joining the New Zealand Air Force in its early days. He was rejected for active service flying in World War One on account of his youth, but joined an infantry unit and from there was transferred to the Royal Air Force, with which he served in France. On his return to New Zealand in 1919 he was posted to the Territorial Air Force Reserve, and here the two met. George Hood was the son of a pioneer Wairarapa settler and was born in Masterton in 1893. He left the farm to serve in the First World War, and returned to New Zealand with only one leg. Despite this he was posted to the Territorial Air Force Reserve where he continued to be keenly interested in aviation. They are presumed to be lost at sea. In 1931, the Masterton aerodrome was renamed Hood Aerodrome and there are a number of streets around New Zealand named Moncrieff or Hood. Photo from the provincial archive of Alberta. William Fraser McIntosh was found lying in his own wood shed, murdered at Moa Creek in Otago on September 28, 1949.
He had left for work after lunch in the afternoon on his farm, just like he always did. He was going to bag some rabbit skins and move some sheep. His wife Margaret was expecting him to return around 3pm to listen to a Ranfuly Shield rugby match on the radio. Initially she was not worried when he did not show, but by 7pm with no sign of him she became increasingly concerned. She called a neighbour and a search was organised. William, 63, was found an hour later facedown in the wool shed with his head bashed in. The only lead the police had was the appearance of a stranger wearing a light blue suit at the house shortly after William had led to work. Margaret said the dark haired man asked her the location of a nearby neighbours house which she gave him. He told her then he had made a mistake and left. He never turned up there and was never seen again. Police began the search for a weapon, draining local ponds, but in the end an axe believed to have blood on it was found in a wood shed. The residents around the area became terrified, locking themselves in at night and local farmers kept their guns on hand. Police offered a 500 reward but no one ever came forward. The inquest held at Alexandra courthouse was packed. A pathologist believed William had been killed by three blows to the head by an axe. One witness, William James McEwen, had been cutting wood nearby. He had a view of the main road throughout the afternoon - and he had not seen any car or person except a public works van. No one knew a reason William would have been killed. Which led to a possibility that the man seen that day was actually looking for the neighbour John Sullivan. But that only raised more questions because Sullivan told the inquest he did not know the man, why he would be looking for him or want to hurt him. In the end no one was ever brought to justice for William’s murder. William was born on August 3, 1877, to Alexander and Ellen McIntosh. He had married Margaret in 1911. He is buried in Andersons Bay Cemetery. Pic by Tony Litvyak. Next year another of the landmarks of the country will fall.
Smith and Caughey’s, one of the oldest department stores in New Zealand will close, bringing to an end 144 years of history. It’s a sign of the times that once was the pinnacle of shopping can no longer compete with modern times. Online shopping and a pandemic have put an end to what used to be considered destination shopping. The shop was the brainchild of a woman. Marianne Smith, a notoriously private woman, who nevertheless has had her name remembered for decades. Born Marianne Caughey on March 10, 1851, to James and Jane, one of seven children in Portaferry, County Down, Northern Ireland. Marianne worked for charity missions in Belfast before marrying William Henry Smith on July 21, 1874, who worked with her brother at a drapery store. After a short time in New York, they returned to Belfast to start a charitable mission but William’s health deteriorated and they decided to come to New Zealand. They arrived in Auckland and Marianne started Smith’s Cheap Drapery Warehouse on Queen St. With the business only just starting, William initially worked for another draper, but by 1881 it was doing so well, he left to join Marianne. She had several principles that served the store well including “small profits and quick returns” and she advertised in a Maori language newspaper Te Korimako. Andrew Caughey joined the business in 1882 and the name changed to the familiar Smith and Caughey. The shop moved to the western side of Queen Street and began importing goods which upset local wholesalers. Marianne’s role - although vital to the company, as founder and buyer was - as was common for married women at the time, rarely acknowledged. Behind the store, Marianne continued Methodist mission work and helped establish the Helping Hand Mission which along with the Sisters of the Poor helped nurse people in their homes. She continued with charity work all her life. The couple had wanted a family but Marianne suffered a number of miscarriages and stillbirths and on a trip to Britain in 1908 informally adopted a boy called Reginald. William died four years later leaving Marianne a wealthy widow. She joined the Smith and Caughey board as a director and was often called Mrs Caughey Smith. In 1916 she gave her and William’s former home, The Grange in Herne Bay, to the Salvation Army to become an orphanage. She donated a great deal of money to hospitals, and gave two parks to Auckland - Quinton Park after Quinton Castle in Portaferry and one in Green Bay. Her charitable work was recognised in 1935 when she was given an MBE. She remarried in 1932 to Reverend Raymond Preston. Marianne died on September 1, 1938 leaving a huge estate, most of it went to set up homes for aged infirm and impecunious women. The trust she established held half the shares in Smith and Caughey Ltd and administered the Caughey-Preston Rest homes and Geriatric Hospital in Remuera. She is buried in Purewa Cemetery. Photo of Queen St from Te Papa’s Collection. |
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