This page contains links to photographs from my father's time in New Zealand, 1928(?) to 1931. I believe they were all taken in or near Christchurch. He worked as an orderly at a mental hospital; that is the uniform he is wearing in some of the pictures.
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Dad is at bottom right here, smoking a cigarette. |
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Dad is the rightmost figure here, at the back. I remember him telling me he had just got out of bed when this picture was taken. |
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Dad is seated at the back, second from left, with a cigarette again. |
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I'm pretty sure that's Dad in the middle. |
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Dad in the middle again, with a cigarette again. |
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That's Dad at the right. If there's a sober man in this picture, I'd be much surprised. |
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Dad was a keen tennis player in his New Zealand days. He told me he and a friend were the first to play on a newly-built court in Christchurch, and a plaque was put up with their names on it. |
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More tennis. |
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Dad in the grass with a lady. Doesn't look like Jessie (see below). |
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This is Evelyn Jean Pepper, née Goddard, mother of my half-brother Noel. |
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Jean again. The location is a public square in Christchurch, New Zealand. |
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Reverse of the previous photograph. "Jessie" is written in Dad's handwriting. The other written characters say "SQUARE" and "CST CH," as best I can make out. |
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Is one of these beauties Jessie? The brunette might be, but it doesn't look much like her (see above). |
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Same two gals as in previous picture. |
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Two women in a Christchurch park. Same two as above? One of them Jessie? No idea. |
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This and the fourteen following pictures are of people unknown to me. Plainly they were friends of Dad's when he lived in New Zealand. Any positive identifications would be much appreciated. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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See above. What a nice picture this is (and the next, too): a bunch of carefree young people horsing around on a sunny hillside, a long way from the Old World and its problems, and still a few years to go before the mid-century horrors started up. Arcadia. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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See above. This and the next two seem to be the same guy. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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See above. This fellow's in the next picture, too. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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See above. |
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Dad acquired a New Zealand passport on October 23rd, 1930. This strangely noir picture is his passport photograph. |
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This is the ship that took Dad from New Zealand back to England, to his everlasting regret. |