Tom's Wife

“It’s ok Maudie, it’s over now, c’mon I’ll take you home,” Tom said quietly as he crushed her to him in an awkwardly tight hug.  Maud’s sobs escaped in spluttering squeaks from the embroidered edges of her handkerchief. She fell against Tom and he led her weaving and stumbling through the long echoing colonnade of pointed arches decorated with gothic gargoyles, down the broad staircase of the Supreme Courthouse and out into the November sunshine.

The previous August, Maud had been rudely and painfully accosted by a large uniformed man while shopping, and the fine ladies on the High Street that afternoon had gaped and stared at the spectacle.

“Maud Mary Turnbull, you are under arrest for performing an unlawful operation upon yourself,” the Policeman had boomed from under his white pith helmet, his grasp firm on her elbow. Bundled away to the Police Station, she was ushered along darkened corridors and down bluestone stairwells into the bowels of the Auckland Gaol, where iron bars and clanking keys had ensured her security and a sleepless night.   The bail hearing the following day added fear to her humiliation and exhaustion and left her unable to speak. Tom had quietly gathered her up and taken her home to lie on the daybed in the living room.

Tom was Maud’s second husband.  The first had left her senseless, bloodied and beaten on more occasions than were countable before she found the courage to take their children and leave him.  Tom and Maud’s courtship was short. The first baby arrived quickly before they married in 1900, and the second was born the following year.

In November 1904, three months after her arrest, the case had made its way to the top of the Supreme Court Criminal List.  Witnesses and accusers alike were summonsed to attend, each in turn to deliver, hand on heart their truthful evidence so help them God.

“I think it not appropriate that she take the stand in her own defence, Mr. Turnbull.”  Mr. Martin, the small ruddy faced lawyer looked across the top of his glasses at them. 

“Apart from her emotional state, the other side has a difficult case to prove.  There is no hard evidence… their case rests on the opinions of small-town folk,” he said and waved his hands dismissively. Scorn rested momentarily on his upper lip and Tom frowned. He and Maud were ‘small-town folk’.

The sunlight streamed at a steep angle through the narrow Courtroom windows and bit into the gloom.  Here Maud’s accuser, Dr. Charles Campbell Jenkins, the man whose complaint gave this case traction, daubed her with the wide brush of coarse immorality.  He painted her as a common woman, devoid of femininity and conscience, such that she could request his assistance to despatch her pre-born infant. A request he had refused.

“I attended to her on the 15th of May 1904, she was dangerously ill… I found she had used an instrument on herself.” 

“I told Mr. Turnbull there would be an inquest if she died, and I wouldn’t be able to write a certificate.”

“Did you discuss with Mr. Turnbull the cause of Mrs. Turnbull’s illness Dr. Jenkins?”

“No, ah no… I assumed Mr. Turnbull would be…ah… familiar with the details,” he said and flashed a glance towards Tom.

Tom breathed heavily and glared back, angered by the Doctor’s smugness and his ugly opinion of Maud.

Mr. Martin jabbed swiftly at the heart of the good Doctor’s reputation and questioned his ability to accurately distinguish fact, from those things more likely to have been imagined because of his close relationship with alcohol. For Maud’s sake, Tom allowed himself a moment of satisfaction at the Lawyer’s low blow. Dr. Jenkins’ struggle with temperance was known but ignored and tolerated because of his position.

One after the other witnesses spoke.  Some said she asked for help and told of medications and hot baths, another recalled Maud said she had accomplished the deed herself.  Then those with no knowledge of a baby, apart from overheard gossip, had formed the view that Maud was crazy.   They recounted their stories with relish and drew wild word pictures to add substance to their claims.

 “She told me she had drowned some relative or other in the lagoon beyond the town.”

“I thought she was off her head.”

“Her head was so bad she didn’t know what she was saying.”

Maud had sat timorous and wide-eyed, while Tom raged in silence.  Do they not have any compassion?!  Dragging up every private thing she ever said and making up stories to satisfy their own narrow minds! The Bastards!

In contrast, there was other evidence from those closer to Maud, those who knew nothing of a pregnancy wanted or otherwise, nor of anything resembling an instrument with which the problem could have been eviscerated.

“I never noticed her to be strange in her manner.”

“Perfectly sensible.”

The report of the medical experts recorded Maud as mixed in her emotions, and she found it difficult to give a cohesive account of herself. Nothing in their examination showed an illegal operation had been performed.  

Tom was hopeful when Justice Edwards in his summing up declared the proceedings had been very irregular, and addressed the prosecution sternly, saying,

“Counsel, your witnesses appear to have been somewhat rehearsed.”

The ‘not guilty’ verdict was delivered within the hour, and the newspaper headline read ‘A Sufferer from Delusions’. Tom threw the newspaper away. 

“It should say Innocent!” he fumed.

Tom regarded Maud carefully as they sat in silence on the veranda watching the sunset, and he thought about the ways he could return normality to their lives.  Time and peace would do most of the work and she would come good, he knew it.   He reached across the gap between them and squeezed her hand and she smiled back at him. 

“We’ll be ok Lovie,” he said.

Frankie

Frankie Kinzett

 “We were living in the (sic) tents, …I went out in the morning and looked up the road, and I could see wisps of smoke, and no house! God!  So, I dived back and told them all, the house is gone!”[1]  At 92 Frankie’s mind is sharp, and her memory is clear, she says: “I remember everything, where we lived, what we did.”[2]

Figure 1. Frankie, far left and siblings swim in the Mangaotaki River, circa 1930. In author's possession.

Born in October 1918[3] at the close of WWI,[4] Frankie was the fourth child in the large family of Harry and Olive Kinzett.   Her father was a labourer, and the family lived an itinerant life[5] born of the need to find work through the difficult post war years of the 1920’s,[6]  and the Great Depression of the 1930’s.[7] Frankie says: “We were always moving on, one or two years was the most we ever stayed in one place”.[8] Frankie traces her childhood and her family’s journey through the middle part of New Zealand’s North Island by the names of the places she lived.  Names like Ngatamahine, Piopio and Mangaotaki, all in the rolling hills south east of Kawhia,[9] once important locations in the history of the pre-European Maori[10] of this area, are now little more than crossroads on a journey to somewhere else. 

The middle years of the 1920s were spent south of the township of Taihape on the Central Volcanic Plateau, in a place Frankie refers to as “Out in the bush”,[11] she recalls mornings of bitter cold walking to school through snow, and her father felling trees to clear farm land: “…there were no roads or anything just the railway, and they bought the logs down on the railway line to the mill  …Mum worked in the Cook House, and we had a big dining room and the men from the mill used to come and get their meals there”.[12]  

While her immediate family were central to her life, the ‘always moving on’ had a disruptive effect on her relationships with others, such that she did not maintain long term friendships with her peers and she had little or no contact with her extended family. She struggles to recall the names of her Father’s siblings, though she remembers meeting her Grandfather: “He came to visit Mum when we were living out of Taihape at that mill house…only time I ever saw him”.[13]

By 1929 the family were living in the district of Waitomo, now famous for its limestone cave systems.[14]  Here schooling was limited. Frankie says: “One place we were at, Mangaotaki, we went to school Thursday Friday and Saturday, just three days a week and the other school a few miles away they went the other three days, just shared the one teacher”.[15]  Because she went to six different primary schools she claims to have “certainly never learned very much”[16] though her neat handwriting and ability to write about her own life tell a very different story.[17]  She dismisses compliments and compares herself poorly alongside the writing abilities of a 90-year-old ex-school teacher she knows.

Frankie completed school at 14 in the village of Aria.[18] “There was no high school out there and no way of getting to one so when you finished primary school…. in those days girls didn’t get jobs so we just stayed at home”.[19] Though staying at home for Frankie and her sisters invariably meant working on farms or in the boarding houses run by her parents, and she has many tales of waiting tables, washing dishes, and preparing cut lunches for boarders.

The moves continued right up until she married in 1938 when family had left a Public Works ‘Relief Camp’ at Ngatamahine, and her parents took over the running of ‘The Delux Hotel’, a large boarding house in Te Kuiti.[20]

 

Living their lives in small country villages and on remote farms meant she and her siblings were rarely exposed to the events and unrest of the outside world.  Although she wore a black ribbon pinned to her blouse commemorating the death of King George V in 1936,[21] Frankie doesn’t recall being overly affected by the ‘Unemployment Riots’ of the Great Depression which occurred in the major New Zealand cities in 1932,[22] and the South African Rugby Tour of New Zealand in 1937 [23] is not even a dot on the horizon of her memory, but she recalls vividly climbing trees to escape having to do jobs, living in tents, and walking to school down country roads, and she also remembers that house that burned down.  

While attending a school reunion with her siblings in 1983, talk turned to the morning she looked up the road and saw wisps of smoke rising from the burned remnants of a house, she says with a chuckle that her older brother “spilled the beans”[24] on a 50-year-old secret about how he and their father had settled a score by going for a walk late one night and setting fire to a house.

Figure 2.  Frankie and Harry Kinzett, circa 1935, Waitomo District.  In author's possession

Figure 3.  Kinzett Family movements 1916-1938, Map of Central North Island, New Zealand.

Bibliography

Buick, T. Lindsay, ‘An Old New Zealander or, Te Rauparaha, The Napoleon of the South’ Whitcombe & Tombs, Ltd, 1911, p.23.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage, ‘Unemployed riot rocks Queen St', https://nzhistory.govt.nz/queen-st-riot-auckland, updated 9-Dec-2016, Accessed 3 December 2017.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 'Armistice Day', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/armistice-day, updated 11-Nov-2014, Accessed 5 November 2017.

Morby, Caitlin, Stuff, ‘Waitomo Glow Worm Caves and Department of Conservation form partnership’, http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/93177796/waitomo-glowworm-caves-and-department-of-conservation-form-partnership, Accessed 9 December 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1853-1981, Aria, Waitomo, New Zealand, 1935, Ancestry, Accessed 5 December 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1853-1981, Paparata Valley, Franklin, Auckland, New Zealand, 1919, Ancestry, Accessed 5 December 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1853-1981, Piopio, Waitomo, New Zealand, 1928, Ancestry, Accessed 5 December 2017.

New Zealand National Film Unit, ‘The Years Back – 2, The Twenties’ (Episode Two) 1973, https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-years-back-the-twentieth-century-1973, Accessed 5 November 2017.

New Zealand National Film Unit, ‘The Years Back – 3, The Thirties’ (Episode Three) 1971, https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-years-back-the-thirties-1971, Accessed 5 November 2017.

O’Connor, Frankie ‘Just a few Memories’ 2009, original held in authors possession.

O’Connor, Frankie Interview by Author, digital recording, Hillsborough Heights Village, Mt Roskill Auckland, New Zealand, 18 July 2010.

Pollock, Kerryn, 'King Country region - Māori settlement and occupation', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/king-country-region/page-4 Accessed 3 December 2017.

Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand.

Richards, Trevor Lawson, 'Dancing on our Bones, New Zealand, South Africa, Rugby and Racism' Bridget Williams Books, 1999, p.13.

Royal, Te Ahukaramū Charles, 'Waikato tribes', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/waikato-tribes, accessed 6 December 2017.

Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand ‘The First World War and the 1920s', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/history-economic/page-6 Accessed 03 Dec 2017.

Tout-Smith, D (2003) ‘HRH King George V (1865-1936)’ in Museums Victoria Collections, https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/2054, Accessed 03 December 2017.

Waitomo District Council, History, http://www.waitomo.govt.nz/council/our-place/history/, Accessed 9 December 2017.

---

[1] Frankie O’Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, Hillsborough Heights Village, Mt Roskill Auckland, New Zealand, 18 July 2010.

[2] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[3] Birth Certificate of Frances Daphney Kinzett, born 25 October 1918, Paparata Valley, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, Certificate Number 146717.

[4] Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 'Armistice Day', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/armistice-day, updated 11-Nov-2014, Accessed 5 November 2017.

[5] See attached map, Figure 3; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Harry Ernest Kinzett, Piopio, Waitomo, New Zealand, 1928, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 5 Dec 2017; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Harry Ernest Kinzett, Paparata Valley, Franklin, Auckland, New Zealand, 1919, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 5 Dec 2017; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Harry Ernest Kinzett, Aria, Waitomo, New Zealand, 1935, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 5 Dec 2017.

[6] Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand ‘The First World War and the 1920s', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/history-economic/page-6 Accessed 03 Dec 2017; New Zealand National Film Unit, ‘The Years Back – 2, The Twenties’ (Episode Two) 1973, https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-years-back-the-twentieth-century-1973, Accessed 5 November 2017.

[7] New Zealand National Film Unit, ‘The Years Back – 3, The Thirties’ (Episode Three) 1971, https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-years-back-the-thirties-1971, Accessed 5 November 2017.

[8] See attached map, Figure 3; Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[9] See attached map, Figure 3; Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, 'Waikato tribes', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/waikato-tribes, accessed 6 December 2017.

[10] Kerryn Pollock, 'King Country region - Māori settlement and occupation', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/king-country-region/page-4 (accessed 3 December 2017); T. Lindsay Buick, ‘An Old New Zealander or, Te Rauparaha, The Napoleon of the South’ Whitcombe & Tombs, Ltd, 1911, p.23; Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, 'Waikato tribes'.

[11] See attached map, Figure 3; Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[12] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[13] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[14] See attached map, Figure 3; Waitomo District Council, History, http://www.waitomo.govt.nz/council/our-place/history/, Accessed 9 December 2017; Caitlin Morby, Stuff, ‘Waitomo Glow Worm Caves and Department of Conservation form partnership’, http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/93177796/waitomo-glowworm-caves-and-department-of-conservation-form-partnership, Accessed 9 December 2017.

[15] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010;

[16] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[17] Frankie O’Connor ‘Just a few Memories’ 2009, original held in authors possession.

[18] See attached map, Figure 3.

[19] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

[20] See attached map, Figure 3.

[21] D. Tout-Smith, (2003) ‘HRH King George V (1865-1936)’ in Museums Victoria Collections, https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/2054, Accessed 03 December 2017.

[22] Ministry for Culture and Heritage, ‘Unemployed riot rocks Queen St', https://nzhistory.govt.nz/queen-st-riot-auckland, updated 9-Dec-2016, Accessed 3 December 2017.

[23] Trevor Lawson Richards, 'Dancing on our Bones, New Zealand, South Africa, Rugby and Racism' Bridget Williams Books, 1999, p.13.

[24] Frankie O'Connor, Interview by Author, digital recording, 2010.

Jane

The Doctor pushed the paperwork across the table for Jane to sign; a flurry of dust leapt from the pages making delicate curlicues in the beam of sunlight from the window, and peering over his glasses at her the good Doctor waited expectantly.

Anticipating her reluctance, Thomas moved forward in his seat and cupped her elbow with his broad farmer's hand “This is the right thing to do Sister, just sign now.”  Perceived as weak willed by both men, Jane battled her own reluctance to sign, and the pressure from her brother in law, and her Doctor.  “Gentlemen, I would be grateful for just a moment, please.”

Thomas now fearing Jane would back away from the agreements he had worked so hard to achieve sat back in the leather chair and closed his mouth tightly, his hands echoing the tension in his face sat clasped and ridged in his lap.

Raising her eyes high to the oak lined walls, and the oil paintings of far off England, she mentally checked off all her options one last time.  She knew that even without their insistence, there was no good or viable choice but this, and she resolved to sign now and quickly, before she had a change of heart.

Sensing her shift the Doctor dipped the pen into the ink well and held it out towards her. She applied it’s ink laden nib to the paper and signed purposefully, ‘Jane Kinzett’, and thereby committed her husband to the Lunatic Asylum.

Elizabeth Ann Rabone 1864-1950

Elizabeth Ann Rabone was born in Staffordshire, England, on November 26^th, 1864.[1]   The third child of Samuel Rabone, a West Midlands Railway Worker, and Margaret Williams, from Shropshire.[2]  The family emigrated to New Zealand in July 1872, with the Birmingham Railway Contractor John Brogden & Sons, as part of a contract with the New Zealand Government for the provision of a railway network and labour force to construct it.[3]

This tough working class beginning and emigration to a new colony as a child, set the foundation for Elizabeth; never likely to rise above her station, but with the fortitude to keep going even when faced with very difficult odds.

Samuel’s family settled in Picton, at the top of the South Island, and it was here in November 1883 that Elizabeth aged 19 married 22-year-old Francis Robert Godfrey (Frank), youngest son of John Godfrey a local Politician, Publican and General Merchant, and his wife Hannah Smith.[4]

Elizabeth and Frank had nine children between 1884 and 1898, two of whom died in infancy.[5]  Elizabeth was settled in Picton, socially active and engaged with her family and their small community.[6]  Her life inexorably changed in 1902, when Frank was diagnosed with syphilis and Elizabeth’s Doctor urged she “No longer co-habit with her husband”.  Their marriage marred by bankruptcy and Frank’s unconscionable behaviour, and with six children under 16, Elizabeth took her Doctor’s advice.[7]  Although the Women’s Movement had been instrumental in gaining women the right to vote in 1893, there was little support available for separated or divorced women raising children alone.  Elizabeth was not eligible for any financial assistance from the Government; pensions for widows did not begin until 1911 and low-income families only began to receive Government financial support in 1926.[8]  Those unable to support themselves prior to this relied on family support or charities.  Elizabeth never settled in one place for long after 1902, her limited choices dictated by her tenuous financial position.

Elizabeth took the three youngest children and moved to Wellington shortly after the separation, and over the next several years applied twice to the Magistrate’s Court for financial support from Frank.[9]  His failure to comply with court orders resulted in a prison sentence in late 1902.[10]  Perhaps as a compromise Frank took custody of the three children in Wellington for twelve months, and Elizabeth returned to Picton.[11]

In 1905 with her children back in her custody, no maintenance from Frank, and unable to provide for them, Elizabeth made the heartbreaking decision to relinquish her 5 and 6-year-old sons to a Church Funded Orphanage in Brightwater, 80 miles from Picton, leaving her with just three children under 16 to support.[12]  By 1911 her eldest children, most still teenagers, had established themselves on the West Coast in the mining region around Greymouth, at the foot of the Southern Alps, and Elizabeth joined them there with the youngest retrieved from the Orphanage and approaching the end of their compulsory schooling.[13]

While on the West Coast, Elizabeth successfully pursued a divorce from Frank, citing poverty as the reason she had delayed taking this action for nine years.  The divorce was granted on the grounds of Frank’s drunkenness, his abuse of, and violence towards Elizabeth, and his infidelity.[14]  Divorce requirements were changed by the Divorce Act of 1898, making them the same for both men and women, though fault still needed to be proven, and often sordid details of the guilty party’s actions were published in the newspaper.[15]  Thankfully Elizabeth’s divorce details were not published and she escaped the embarrassment of public disapproval.

Elizabeth Ann Godfrey nee Rabone

In late 1912 Elizabeth and the two youngest boys moved 640 miles north to Mercer to join her 17-year-old daughter Madge, who was recently married.[16]   Mercer was a bustling hub of railway activity beside the Waikato River, on the main trunk line between Auckland and Hamilton.[17]  Here for several years Elizabeth used the surname Young, and although family stories hint at a relationship with a man of this name, nothing is now known which confirms this.[18]

New Zealand entered WWI in 1914 and those of her sons old enough enlisted, and joined the war effort in Europe, Walter in 1914, Sam and Frank in 1916.[19]   Walter and Sam returned to New Zealand at the end of the war, however Lance Corporal Frank Godfrey of the NZ Machine Gun Battalion fell at the Second Battle of Cambrai, in Northern France on 8^th October 1918 aged 21.[20]  This was a painful year for Elizabeth as her youngest child Rabone, died six weeks after his brother, during the 1918 Post War Influenza Pandemic which swept the country.[21]  The loss of two sons so close to each other had a profound effect on Elizabeth, and she continued to remember them with lines of poetry published in Newspaper ‘In Memoriam’ notices 20 years after their deaths.[22]

Elizabeth lived the balance of her life close to, and often with her adult children who were scattered throughout the country. In 1923, she was with her daughter Olive for the birth of a grandson in the King Country.[23]  She spent the years of WWII in Otaki and Upper Hutt, near Madge and Walter’s families, and visited Sam who had remained on the West Coast.[24]  Despite maintaining close relationships with her adult children, some of her grandchildren recalled Elizabeth with less than fondness.  Her granddaughter Frankie, remembered her as “a mean woman, who would cut boiled sweets in half”.[25]  This frugal action perhaps indicative of the years of poverty Elizabeth had endured.

Elizabeth Ann Godfrey nee Rabone with Grandchildren in Mangaotaki 1929

Despite their efforts to locate him, the family lost touch with their Father in the late 1920’s, his daughter in law recalled in 1982 “The rumour was he may have gone back to the goldmines in or out of Picton and met with an accident”.[26]  Frank had remained in the North Island and died in a ‘Home for Old Men’ in 1931, of cerebral haemorrhage and syphilis; by this time Elizabeth had been calling herself a ‘Widow’ for more than a decade.[27]

Elizabeth never remarried and succumbed to old age at 85, she died in the home of her daughter Phyllis, on January 12^th, 1950, and was buried in the Pukekohe Public Cemetery.[28]

Elizabeth was a stoic and tenacious woman who chose the precarious life of single motherhood over an unworkable marriage, in a time with few social systems to support her.  With limited finances, she used her greatest skill, a determined focus on family and creating the tight bonds which held them together through poverty, separation, bereavement and two World Wars.  Her legacy; kind honourable sons, and strong resolute daughters.

Bibliography

Arnold, Rollo, ‘The Farthest Promised Land - English Villagers, New Zealand Immigrants of the 1870s’, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1981.

Auckland City Council, Manukau Memorial Gardens, Pukekohe Cemetery, Pukekohe, New Zealand.

Auckland Star.

Baker, Maureen, 'Family welfare - Welfare, work and families, 1918–1945', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/family-welfare/pages 2 and 3, Accessed 10 Sep 2017.

Blenheim Bankruptcy Case Files c1876-c2003, Archives New Zealand, National Office, Wellington,

Brayshaw, Norman, The Godfreys of Wairau: a short history of John and Henry Godfrey. Blenheim, N.Z. N. Brayshaw, 1962

Brown, Hayley Marina, Loosening the Marriage Bond: Divorce in New Zealand, c.1890s - c.1950s, Victoria University of Wellington, 2011, Page 19. Accessed 17 Sep 2017.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Frank Godfrey, Service Number 14253, Burial Naves Communal Cemetery Extension, URL https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/307816/godfrey,-frank/ Accessed 28 Aug 2017

Cook, Megan, 'Divorce and separation - Growth in divorce: 1898–1979', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/divorce-and-separation/page-2, Accessed 23 Aug 2017.

England Census, 1871, Horseley Heath, Tipton, St Martin, Staffordshire, England, Class: RG10; Piece: 3003; Folio: 44; Page: 25; GSU roll: 838855, Ancestry, Accessed 23 Aug 2017.

General Register Office, Her Majesty’s Passport Office, England.

Godfrey to Reed, letter, 30 August 1982.

Grey River Argus.

Greymouth Supreme/High Court Divorce Files 1909-1981, Archives New Zealand, Christchurch.

Hokitika Museum Photographic Collection, Westland District Council, Hokitika, New Zealand, GPNeg#5758.

Legel, Paula. Influenza Pandemic 1918. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 5 June 2015. Updated: 11 June 2015.
URL: www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/topics/influenza-pandemic-1918, Accessed 19 Sep 2017.

Marlborough Express.

New Zealand Defence Force, Personnel Archives, Archives New Zealand, National Office, Wellington.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1853-1981, Grey Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand 1919, Ancestry, Accessed 17 Aug 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1853-1981, Otaki, Wellington, New Zealand, 1938, Ancestry, Accessed 20 Aug 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1853-1981, Otaki, Wellington, New Zealand, 1946, Ancestry, Accessed 20 Aug 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Grey, West Coast, New Zealand, 1911, Ancestry, Accessed 17 Aug 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Wairau, Marlborough, New Zealand 1905, Ancestry, Accessed 20 Aug 2017.

New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Wellington, New Zealand, 1902, Ancestry, Accessed 20 Aug 2017.

New Zealand Herald.

New Zealand Times.

O'Connor, Frankie, conversation with Sue Young and Maureen O'Connor, digital recording, 2010, in author’s possession.

Phipps, Gareth, revised by Ian McGibbon, '1918: spring offensive and advance to victory' (The Hundred Days Offensive), URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/western-front-1918, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 21-Jun-2017, Accessed 28 Aug 2017.

Pollock, Kerryn, 'Children’s homes and fostering - Church institutions and charitable aid', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/childrens-homes-and-fostering/page-1, Accessed 17 Sep 2017.

Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand.

School Admission, Progress and Withdrawal Registers indexes 1858-1912, NZSG Kiwi Collection V2, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Swarbrick, Nancy 'Country schooling - Getting an education: 1800s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/country-schooling/page-1 Accessed 17 Sep 2017.

The Colonist

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand (Auckland Provincial District) - Mercer, Victoria University of Wellington Library, New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Te Puhikotuhi o Aotearoa, Accessed 10 Sep 2017

Wanganui district Council, Aramaho Cemetery, Accessed 10 Aug 2017.

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[1] Birth Certificate of Elizabeth Ann Rabone, born 26 November 1864, General Register Office, Her Majesty’s Passport Office, England, 1864, Dec Qtr, District, Dudley, Vol 06C, Page 53.

[2] Ancestry, Census record for Samuel, Margaret, Samuel Jnr, Jane & Elizabeth Ratone (Rabone), No 4 Court, 4 Horseley Heath, Tipton, 1871 England Census, Tipton, St Martin, Staffordshire, Accessed 23 Aug 2017.

[3] Rollo Arnold, ‘The Farthest Promised Land - English Villagers, New Zealand Immigrants of the 1870s’, Part One - English Villagers, New Zealand Immigrants, 1 Brogdens' Navvies, Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1981; Obituary, Marlborough Express, Volume XXX, Issue 100, 30 April 1894, Page 2, Obituary of Samuel Rabone.

[4] Marriage Certificate of Elizabeth Ann Rabone and Francis Robert Godfrey, married 28 November 1883, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages New Zealand, 1883/2892; Norman Brayshaw, The Godfreys of Wairau: a short history of John and Henry Godfrey. Blenheim, N.Z. N. Brayshaw, 1962.

[5] Birth Registration record of Thomas Godfrey, born 1884, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, 1884/7152; Death Registration record of Thomas Godfrey, died 1884, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, 1884/4570; Birth Registration record of Dorothy Lily Godfrey, born 1893, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, 1893/1170; Death Registration record of Dorothy Lily Godfrey, died 1884, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand 1893/3744; Greymouth divorce file - Godfrey, Elizabeth Ann v Godfrey, Francis Robert, 29 August 1911, Greymouth Supreme/High Court Divorce Files 1909-1981, Archives New Zealand, Christchurch Regional Office, Item ID R20314919, Pages 2 and 3.

[6] Local and General News, Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIV, Issue 194, 20 Aug 1900, Page 2; Local and General News, Marlborough Express, Volume XXXV, Issue 226, 28 Sep 1901, Page 2; Coronation Celebrations, Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 142, 20 June 1902, Page 3.

[7] Greymouth divorce file - Godfrey, Elizabeth Ann v Godfrey, Francis Robert, 29 August 1911; Debtors' Petition, Debtor Francis Robert Godfrey, October 1896, Blenheim Bankruptcy Case Files c1876-c2003, Archives New Zealand, National Office, Wellington, Item ID R22907097.

[8] Maureen Baker, 'Family welfare - Welfare, work and families, 1918–1945', Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/family-welfare/pages 2 and 3, Accessed 10 Sep 2017.

[9] Frank, Rabone and Margaret Godfrey admitted to Thorndon School, Wellington 28 January 1903, by Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, School Admission, Progress and Withdrawal Registers indexes 1858-1912, NZSG Kiwi Collection V2, New Zealand Society of Genealogists; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Wellington, New Zealand 1902, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 20 Aug 2017; Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1906, Page 2; Local and General, New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4784, 14 October 1902, page 4.

[10] Local and General, New Zealand Times, 14 October 1902.

[11] Frank, Rabone and Margaret Godfrey admitted to Mt Cook Schools, Wellington 20 Jul 1903 by Francis Robert Godfrey, School Admission, Progress and Withdrawal Registers indexes 1858-1912; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Wairau, Marlborough, New Zealand 1905, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 20 Aug 2017.

[12] Frank and Rabone Godfrey admitted to Spring Grove School, Nelson, 24 Sep 1906 by Guardian Mr W Schwass, School Admission, Progress and Withdrawal Registers indexes 1858-1912, NZSG Kiwi Collection V2, New Zealand Society of Genealogists; St Andrew’s Orphanage, (refers to Mrs Schwass’ home in Brightwater), The Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13079, 12 April 1911, Page 2; Kerryn Pollock, 'Children’s homes and fostering - Church institutions and charitable aid', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/childrens-homes-and-fostering/page-1, Accessed 17 Sep 2017.

[13] Marriage Registration record of Margaret Phyllis Caroline Godfrey and Alfred Branch, 1907, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, 1907/5549; Marriage Registration Record of Olive Jane Godfrey and Reuben Carne, 1908, Registrar of Births deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, 1908/1178; Frank and Rabone Godfrey departure from Spring Grove School Nelson, Last day 17 Feb 1911, Destination Totara Flat, School Admission, Progress and Withdrawal Registers indexes 1858-1912; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Grey, West Coast, New Zealand 1911, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 17 Aug 2017; Nancy, Swarbrick, 'Country schooling - Getting an education: 1800s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/country-schooling/page-1 Accessed 17 Sep 2017.

[14] Greymouth divorce file - Godfrey, Elizabeth Ann v Godfrey, Francis Robert, 29 August 1911.

[15] Megan Cook, 'Divorce and separation - Growth in divorce: 1898–1979', Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/divorce-and-separation/page-2, Accessed 23 Aug 2017; Hayley Marina Brown, ‘Loosening the Marriage Bond: Divorce in New Zealand, c.1890s - c.1950s’, Victoria University of Wellington, 2011, Page 19.

[16] Orange Blossoms, Marriage of William Blanch to Margaret Dorothy Gladys Godfrey, Grey River Argus, 26 Nov 1912, Page 3; Military Record, GODFREY, Frank - WW1 14253 - Army 1914-1918 New Zealand Defence Force, Personnel Archives, Page 1, Archives New Zealand, National Office, Wellington, Item Number R16786790.

[17] Victoria University of Wellington Library, New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Te Puhikotuhi o Aotearoa, The Cyclopedia of New Zealand (Auckland Provincial District) - Mercer, Page 702.

[18] Military Record, GODFREY, Frank - WW1 14253 - Army 1914-1918, page 1.

[19] Military Record, GODFREY, Francis Walter - WWI 6/1293, WWII 814644 – Army, New Zealand Defence Force, Personnel Archives, Archives New Zealand, National Office, Wellington, Item Number R24056625; Military Record, GODFREY, Samuel John WW1 32948- Army 1914-1918 New Zealand Defence Force, Personnel Archives, Archives New Zealand, National Office, Wellington, Item Number R16786810; Military Record, GODFREY, Frank - WW1 14253 - Army 1914-1918.

[20] Military Record, GODFREY, Frank - WW1 14253 - Army 1914-1918; Gareth Phipps, revised by Ian McGibbon, '1918: spring offensive and advance to victory' (The Hundred Days Offensive), URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/western-front-1918, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 21-Jun-2017, Accessed 28 Aug 2017; Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Frank Godfrey, Service Number 14253, Burial Naves Communal Cemetery Extension, URL https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/307816/godfrey,-frank/ Accessed 28 Aug 2017.

[21] Death Registration record for Rabone Clarence Godfrey, died 13 November 1919, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand 1918/9551; In Memoriam, Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 270, 13 November 1919, Page 7; Paula Legel, Influenza Pandemic 1918, Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hir, first published 5 June 2015, Updated 11 June 2015, Accessed 19 Sep 2017.

[22] In Memoriam Notices, New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23163, 8 October 1938, Page1.

[23] Frankie O'Connor, conversation with Sue Young and Maureen O'Connor, digital recording, Hillsborough Heights Village, Mt Roskill Auckland, New Zealand, 18 July 2010, in author's possession.

[24] Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Otaki, Wellington, New Zealand, 1853-1938, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 20 Aug 2017; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Otaki, Wellington, New Zealand 1946, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 20 Aug 2017;  Unknown Photographer, Studio Portrait of Elizabeth Godfrey with Son Sam Godfrey and grandchildren, 15 December 1922, Hokitika Museum, Westland District Council, Hokitika, New Zealand, GPNeg#5758.

[25] Frankie O'Connor, conversation with Sue Young and Maureen O'Connor, digital recording, 2010.

[26] Daisy Godfrey to Olive Reed, letter, 30 August 1982, Original held by Olive Reed.

[27] Death Certificate of Francis Robert Godfrey, died 13 May 1931, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand, 1931/3674; Wanganui district Council Burial Record, Francis Godfrey, buried 16 May 1931, Aramaho Cemetery; Ancestry, Electoral Roll Record for Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, Widow, Grey Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand 1919, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981, Accessed 17 Aug 2017.

[28] Death Certificate of Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, died 12 January 1950, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand 1950/18966; Auckland City Council Burial record of Elizabeth Ann Godfrey, 14 January 1950, Manukau Memorial Gardens, Pukekohe Cemetery, 82 Wellington Street, Pukekohe, Lot PKANG-F-065.