Clubs - India

Date: 18 May 2001

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: Leckey, Richard Edward, 1937-

Reference: OHInt-0562/07

Description: Richard Leckey was born in Gazaiabad in 1937. Explains that his father worked for the railways, talks about his transfers and recalls memories of Kotri, railway houses and servants. Mentions his brothers and step-sisters, his own schooling at Lawrence College. Recalls his experiences of partition. Talks of his sister living in New Zealand, followed by the rest of the family, and his father's money in India. Talks of his carpentry apprenticeship in Auckland and describes his various jobs with hydro schemes. Mentions his wife's work on a psychiatric ward, his work in the same hospital and at a freezing works. Mentions his returned serviceman's loan, wanting to buy land. Talks of Maori associations, his genealogy, the SAS in New Zealand and why he left it. Explains the changes in his religions and mentions Indian religions. Talks of his family in Australia, Pakistan and England, school uniform, western clothes, mealtimes and games played and mixing with Muslim children. Mentions club membership and cultural differences. Talks of his drinking habit, settling in New Zealand and outlines the differences in lifestyle. Talks about his property in Karamea, and interest in forestry, his carpentry and building. Awards/funding - Project received an Oral History Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008512, OHC-008513 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 1 interview(s). 2 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2645.

Date: 21 Aug 2000

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: Hewett, Neale Brind Stuart, 1906-2005

Reference: OHInt-0562/01

Description: Neale Hewett talks about his birth in Burma in 1906. Mentions that many generations of his father and mother's side of the family served in the military in India. Details great grandfather's service and the family tradition. Describes himself and his father as Cape Horners. Mentions Dartmouth and Royal Navy. Talks about father's service in Burma and describes the influences of the King and Queen on their subjects. Details being sent to a home in Cheltenham, England at 4 years of age and school in Eastbourne until 13 holidays included, and not recognising his parents. Describes growing up without parents. Describes attending Pangbourne College aged 12, the Royal Naval Reserves and outlines his work including HMS Winchelsea testing poison gas. Outlines voyages with P&O to obtain his 2nd mate's ticket, enters the Royal Indian Marines. Describes the relief given at the 1923 Japanese earthquake.Talks about moving from ship to ship, having royalty as passengers, later surveying the coastline of India on the Investigator. Describes copying charts during the monsoon season. Talks about the closure of the Indian Navy and finding work with Bombay Burma Trading Company while continuing as a reserve officer with the Frontier Force Cavalry. At the outbreak of war describes re-entering the Navy. Describes his jobs and escorting the First NZ Echelon: taking a gunnery course, wanting to return to sea but having to train gunners. Describes the situation at the changeover in 1947 and gives reasons for retiring from the navy and leaving India. Talks about his parents, wife and children and his father wanting to retire to New Zealand. Mentions living in Australia with his children. Gives reason for moving to New Zealand, applying for citizenship, discovering that his father was a New Zealander and his mother's family were here also. Talks about his employment in commercial fishing and NZ Forest Products.. Relates his United Nations job in 1950's in various countries, describes the way he organised his work and staff. Describes the changes when a political element joined the UN, and his resignation. Compares the African independence with that of India. Describes wartime atrocities by the Japanese. Talks about his nationality and religion, and as it was in India. Talks about his accomodation, furnishings and places he called home, his servants who travelled with him, the meals, lifestyle and languages spoken. Relates meeting his wife, Thecla Edana Davis, and describes her background. Talks about his children's schools and education and family health. Mentions snake encounters. Details the clubs they belonged to in India, multiculturism and integration of races, talks of Anglo-Indians. Talks of partition. Mentions his impressions on his return to India. Awards/funding - Project received an Oral History Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Accompanying material - Includes 2 leaves of notes about conversations held with Neale Hewett. One clarifies various subjects and the second conversation was over lunch with a neighbour. Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008510, OHA-008511 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 1 interview(s). 1.30 Hours and minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2644.

Date: 31 May 2001

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: Hansen, Robert Haig, 1918-2009

Reference: OHInt-0562/05

Description: Robert Haig Hansen was born in 1918 at Dehra Dun. Talks of his British and New Zealand passports, citizenship and residence in Britain. Relates that he was in Borneo at the time of independence and talks of the wartime there. Mentions that his maternal grandfather and father were bandmasters in India while his mother was a pianist and singer and sons are musicians. Mentions the boarding schools which he, his brother and sister attended. Details his family members and their silk business in Kashmir, their house and servants' living arrangements. Talks about food, clubs and sports. Recounts details of his father's death, his mother's remarriage, her move to New Zealand and sheepfarming. Describes meeting his wife, talks of her army background in India and marrying in Britain. Mentions his ability in speaking and writing languages. Recalls working as an unpaid teacher, an RAF pilot, joining the police as a civilian, being the Governor's private secretary in Borneo. Talks of accommodation provided for the Duke of Edinburgh in Borneo and relates that he received an MBE in England in 1946. Recalls being a school caretaker and buying a dairy in New Zealand. Describes his wife's strokes and his cataracts and heart operation. Awards/funding - Project received an Oral History Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Accompanying material - Genealogical table for the Hansen family and handwritten war memoirs of Wilfred Griffin, brother-in-law of the Interviewee. Includes photocopies of various certificates and letters. Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008506, OHC-008507 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 1 interview(s). 1 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2642.

Date: 23 Aug 2000

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: Dever, Jeanne-Marie Thecla, 1933-

Reference: OHInt-0562/04

Description: Jeanne Dever was born in 1933 in Bangalore, the daughter of Neale Hewett. Talks of boarding schools attended in India and England. Describes her reaction to the lack of privacy at these schools and her attitudes to learning. Talks of servants, her social life in clubs and the inability to take her Parsee friends to them. Details her family in India and talks of holiday activities in Karachi. Mentions beggars and caste differences. Talks of her clothing, mealtimes and the discipline meted out by mother. Talks of her father's attitude to partition. Mentions being engaged and living in Australia and Tasmania. Awards/funding - Project received an Oral History Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Accompanying material - Brief notes taken before and after the recording Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008505 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 1 interview(s). 30 Minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2641.

Date: 17 May 2001

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: Hart, Renee Sylvia, 1919-

Reference: OHint-0562/06

Description: Renee Hart was born in Worthing, Sussex, England on 20 June 1919. Mentions her passports, her attitude to her nationality and the postings of her father's regiment. Talks of her parents' marriage and children. Describes her father's move to India as a bandsman and how the family travelled there. Describes the band's musical commitments. Talks of her father's change from playing brass to stringed instruments and piano. Mentions the governors of various regions in India. Relates the details of the family's return to England and their subsequent return to India. Talks of her mother's occupation in hairdressing, her sister's role in the business and her own training, the techniques used at the time, their Indian customers with reference to privacy for various races. Mentions social life in the hills and teaching dancing with her sisters. Mentions her family's religion and censoring the forces' mail in wartime. Talks of her husband's family connections with India, their meeting and living in India. Describes sports clubs, social clubs and membership, relationships, modes of transport. Explains what their accommodation was like, mentions bathrooms and toilets at home and at boarding school. Mentions servants. Talks about her children, her parents and siblings settling in New Zealand. Describes her father's work and pension husband's job situation. Awards/funding - Project received an Oral Histroy Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008508, OHC-008509 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 interview(s). 1.50 Hours and minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2643.

Date: 24 Apr 2001 - 10 May 2001

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: MacLeod, Beryl Aida, 1923-

Reference: OHInt-0562/08

Description: Beryl MacLeod was born in Calcutta in 1923. Talks of her arrival in New Zealand, her husband's family home in Glasgow, and buying, as opposed to renting, their first home. Mentions that her parents were English and talks about their move to India in 1921. Describes her father's job as bandsman and musician, the instruments he played, his WWI service in France later in Egypt, his retirement and move to New Zealand in 1950. Relates her schooling in India, her secreterial and hairdressing jobs. Talks about the mother's hairdressing equipment and business. Mentions her father giving violin lessons in schools. Describes their accommodation, the servants and their routines. Describes meeting her husband, her sisters' dancing school and performances. Talks of religion, boarding school life and gives reasons for her move to Shillong with her mother. Describes the situation at the time of partition and relationships of Anglo-Indian women with European men. Describes social life of Burma Shell employees, club membership and social distinction. Recalls her children's time at boarding school in Scotland, working for Shell Oil, her return to Scotland then New Zealand. Describes her theatrical performances, Meals on Wheels and driving for the Foundation for the Blind. Recalls a visit to India, compares life there and the way it was when they lived there. Awards/funding - Project recieved an Oral History Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008514, OHC-008515 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 interview(s). 2 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2646.

Date: 25 Apr 2001

From: Anglo-Indian lives oral history project

By: Mendonca, Anthony Kenneth, 1934-

Reference: OHInt-0562/09

Description: Anthony Mendonca was born in Karachi in 1934. Talks of his relatives living in India from the late 19th century until World War II and mentions marriages to British soldiers, several of whom later became prisoners of war. Talks of his father's wartime work, recalls food rationing and curfew. Mentions his twelve brothers and sisters and their education at a catholic school, the size of their house and compares other similarly sized familes with his. Talks of his work, on leaving school, as a civilian in the Air Force and land-based work with a steamship company. Mentions trade problems and exploitation of the East. Relates his move to England and the overseas currency situation. Describes his impressions of life in England, finding work, his accommodation and studying engineering at evening class. Recalls his blind date, marrying, having children and moving to New Zealand. Recalls his jobs, passports, religions and the Goan community. Talks of accommodation and servants, food and mealtimes, clubs, languages and treatment of races. Describes partition and the situation following it. Mentions social standards of behaviour and inheritance of property. Relates his children's lives, his son's army experiences, his use of languages and knighthood. Mentions his daughter's work experiences. Talks of his attitude and visits to England and Pakistan, his nationality, the procedure of obtaining New Zealand citizenship. Explains property inheritance and ownership, the financial situation of his family. Awards/funding - project received an Oral History Grant Interviewer(s) - Dorothy McMenamin Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-008316 - OHC-008319 Quantity: 4 C60 cassette(s). 1 interview(s). 4 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-2647.