The Older Gilbert Family

The original James Gilbert emigrated from Cornwall to Australia somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. He settled in Victoria and married Elizabeth White who was born near Penzance and had also emigrated to Australia. They apparently lived with her mother for many years and the story goes that although he never said a word about it he hated her. So much in fact that after she died Elizabeth came home from shopping one day to find every picture of her mother had been burnt in a fire in the back yard.

They had five sons and a daughter. James, Torn, Bert, Dick and Alf with Elizabeth the youngest. Alf was born on 1st December, 1880 at Ballarat.

They were in the mining industry which how they came to be there and all seemed to be skilled with their hands

Eventually they crossed the Tasman and lived for a short time in Wellington. The house in Hayr St. Oriental Bay was still there up until a few years ago.

I never learned what happened then but it seems that the family were growing up and went their own ways. Bert and Alf were running a watchmaker and jewellery shop in Greymouth while Aif was quite a young man. After that Bert moved to Nelson where he owned an orchard. Alf then went in with Torn and they began sawmilling in Karamea during the first ten years of the new century. When the bush cut out Tom took a position as Manager of John Chambers and Sons Ltd an engineering company at their branch in Timaru. Shortly after that he opened a new branch in Invercargill where he remained until he died. When I went to Invercargill in 1949 his widow Auntie Kate (Connor) was still alive and living in Ythan St. Joan would spend time with her after we shifted just down the road on the corner of Crinan and Ythan.

Dick went to work for Tom in Invercargill and was a very successful salesman but also an alcoholic. He sold 'square box' Essex cars to the local farmers in large numbers but got the sack from his brother when he was picked up D.I.C. In the 1920s this was a fairly rare happening and although the Directors in Wellington pleaded with Torn to reinstate him Tom was adamant. Dick drifted from job to job, and my mother told the story of how she met him in the middle of the Depression when she was Secretary of the Writers Club. They met in the Fabian Clubrooms at the foot of Queen St. opposite the G.P.O. Unexpectedly Dick arrived looking like a millionaire but she soon found that all he wanted was to cadge five bob off her. Such was his charm that broke as she was she gave it to him. After he had left all the women crowded around her asking her if she had been invited to Government House as they were sure that he was the Governor's Aide. He had a most unsuccessful marriage and died in the 1930s still in his fifties.

Elizabeth married a nice fellow named Shirley Frost who became a member of the Open Brethren and preached on street corners. They took up a bit of land on the road between Helensville and Kaukapakapa. Her mother also Elizabeth lived with thein until she died during World War 2 at about 93. She is buried in the Helensville Cemetery. When we lived at Crown Hill she would travel from Helensville by train to Auckland, catch the ferry to Bayswater then take the steam train to Milford. She would then walk the mile or so to our place and start doing house work. The Frost house is still there although now derelict as the land has been added to another farm and used as a 'run off' My mother stayed with them when she was teaching at Helensville School in the 1940s. After Shirley died Elizabeth shifted to Whangaparaoa and lived to about 97.

We didn't have a lot to do with the Gilberts since they were scattered around the. country although my brother Bill used to call in at Uncle Jim's office in Hamilton when he was working down that way. I believe that he was some sort of an agent. The only connection I have now is. through Terry Kennaway his grand daughter who lives at Waterview.

Uncle Tam's family mostly stayed in Invercargill and I used to help cousin Michael who had a metal working place. I painted drawbar lifts that farmers used to hitch machinery onto tractors with rust resistant paint. He was always. moaning about how people used his place and did nothing for him. I had originally accepted his offer to help me patch up the body work on my old Model A Ford but he kept me so busy helping him that very little ever got done on the car. I used to see him every Sales. Tax day in Customs when he came in and paid his account. I think he came in personally so as to save postage. He was a Manufacturing Retailer and used to make out his cheques to The Collector of Sales Tax which we thought quite odd. That family had quite a strained relationship because Auntie Kate was a Catholic. Despite being married in the church Tom apparently insisted that while the girls could be Catholics the boys would be Protestants. Eventually Michael turned Catholic but the others did not. The eldest boy William James (Jim). was in business in Christchurch as a manufacturers rep but later moved to Auckland where most of his customers were.

When I left Customs he tried to get me to work at Kidd Garrett Ltd reckoning that insurance was too tough for someone like me, but the job they offered was a dead end one and his mate there would have felt threatened because of my background. When we went to visit them when they lived in St Leonard's Rd we drove past a couple of times because we didn't think that we could have family living in such a palatial house. He moved back to Christchurch when he retired and died there a few years ago. Although I didn't realise it Jim was in the same regiment as me in Italy. Elsie (I think that was her name). was quite an important person in Invercargill serving as Mayor at one time.

Bert had a messy divorce and shifted to Australia with his new wife. The rest of the family must have stayed because Bill is now nearly ninety is living at Manly. He also was in the 4th Field Regiment in 26 Battery in fact and I didn't know that he was my cousin.

Dick had no children and Elizabeth had only one daughter who we knew as Elsa although in her recent death notice she was called Elise. She apparently hated her name and became Terry. She used to visit us at Milford when she was about fifteen and would take me down to the beach as her escort. I was about seven but I noticed that she only wanted me around if she didn't like some guy who was trying to do a line with her.