Saturday, May 10, 2014

Agnes Hanbury

Okay, I've got it right this time; Mother's Day is tomorrow (today in NZ).  I asked my Dad to do a little piece on his mother, Agnes Hanbury.

Grandma, before she was married, in Manchester, England

Grandma as a child

Grandma with two of her siblings

Grandma took this snap of her kids in Bahrain. My Dad at right

Grandma and Mum

My younger sister Pietra, 18, Grandma and fatuniversityme 

Grandma Brettkelly was born Agnes Mary Hanbury in 1907 in Manchester, England. So she was an Edwardian lady and very proud of her Catholic and "Working Class" origins.

Formal schooling finished at 14 years of age and she became a short hand typist. She lived at home until she married at 27. There were eight children in the Hanbury family and their mother had died some years before. Agnes always put her wage packet on the mantlepiece behind the clock and her father would then take out what he wished and she would live on the balance. It was said that she never knew just how much she earned and cared less.

Her evenings would have been...Children of Mary Society, Church Choir singing and practice, Palais Glide dances at the local dance hall. She had five sisters and they were close friends. No car, no TV, no computer, not much money but she said they were very, very happy years.

A marine engineer, Arthur Kelly, kept coming to the dances every time he was in port and so they married and started a family. Arthur came ashore and had a number of jobs until WWII when he was employed testing Wellington bombers before delivery.

In 1946 Agnes, four children and Arthur set sail for Bahrain Island where they lived for four years. Arthur working for the Caltex Oil Company.

In 1950 Agnes, Arthur and five children came to New Zealand, which was about the size of the British Isles but had a population of only two million people and was very much an agricultural country. Agnes and Arthur struggled to settle after living most of their lives in the city of Manchester, then the second city of England.

Grandma once went into the local butcher in Oamaru and asked for a leg of lamb. The cheeky butcher replied..."front or back, Madam?" For a long time she thought that "Steers" were some sort off third sex. Of course all New Zealanders, especially in the 1950's, knew they were neutered bulls.

Eventually they settled in Wellington, NZ's capital city and Grandma had her sixth child at 45 years of age. She later returned to work as a short hand typist in a government department and there she stayed until retirement.

I suspect that her last child was a bit of an embarrassment when conceived. However, that last daughter was to become the brightest and best educated of all her children. Their relationship was by far the most loving and caring of all her children.

She was a tiny, cheerful, happy woman, very bright mentally, very committed to her Church, loved her family and they, each one of them, loved her without reservation.

She died aged 78.

                                                                                   -Arthur Brettkelly, eldest son.

37 comments:

  1. Sounds like quite the woman indeed and 6 kids too, wow.

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  2. Fantastic! What a history! And beautiful ladies too!

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  3. Well done, she was a special mother and grandmother. Happy Mother's Day, Jody. It's great to remember our mothers and appreciate them in their imperfections. Kathleen


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    1. Happy Mother's Day Kathleen - hope you got a cuppa tea in bed and toast and marmalade!

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  4. And she loved Agatha Christies novels and said - or maybe its family folklore - that the greatest thing about growing older was forgetting the endings of the whodunnit novels....

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    1. Ha! Brilliant, she always looked on the bright side

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  5. Absolutely loved this! What fabulous pics and what a wonderful woman she most obviously was. My fav pic is of her around age 7-8 looking so full of moxie in the beret!

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    1. Full of Moxie! I love that - She does! I love her expression. There was also a great photo of her in a Harlequin outfit, but it was too fuzzy, I wish they still did those photos

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  6. So lovely, it must be great to hear a first hand account, I never my any of grandparents and never saw any pics of any of them either.
    It's funny, my mum was mortified when she got pregnant with me in her 40's, she felt it was the worst thing that could have happened to her but I'm the only one that bothers with her now.

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    1. ..And your mother is so wonderful!
      I remember one of my mother's friends got pregnant in her 40's and it was all hush hush and none of her friends were allowed to speak on it! How things have changed... for the better

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  7. Wow, what an epitaph :-) She sounds amazing.

    I am curious. At what point did Kelly become Brettkelly?

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    1. Hi Philippa, My Grandad did not get on with his parents and put the Kelly with Brett and then took away the hypen.

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  8. Those pictures are really lovely....the wedding dress is so so sweet and you are lucky to have such a loving heritage.

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  9. How wonderful to have that piece of family history documented for you by your father, and thanks for sharing it with us, she sounds like quite a woman!

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  10. What an interesting life! So many women of her generation never moved far from where they were born. A lovely story .. and a beautiful looking lady.

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  11. love this post!!! happy mothers day x

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  12. Loved this post. Such an adventure - and with 6 kids - amazing! Happy Mother's Day.

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  13. Hello,

    This is a most interesting account of your grandmother and illustrated with such fabulous pictures. Clearly she was a woman of great spirit and, it seems to us, quite ahead of her times in many ways.

    Life cannot have been easy for her but she definitely made the most of everything. That is certainly a lesson for us all.

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    1. HI Jane and Lance, welcome to the blog. I am loving your adventures over on your blog. Yes its must have been hard, She never complained but I think honestly she missed her family and a more city life in Manchester.

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  14. You had a good looking grandmother. That must be where you got it from then? One of these days I need to visit New Zealand. It looks like a fascinating place.

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  15. What gorgeous pictures and story of your grandma!

    Love the photo of your dad and his siblings when they were kids! It's priceless!

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  16. What a beautiful story of your Grandmother, she was lovely. Adore these old pictures :))) xx

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  17. Love the pics and the story. She sounds quite a woman... and six kids - she has my instant admiration!

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  18. What a lovely tribute. Happy Mother's Day!

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  19. What an interesting family history and beautiful photos! (And of course your caption on the last made me laugh!)

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    1. And what was I thinking wearing sheer blue tights with espadrilles?? I plead the Eighties!

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    2. Jody, none of us escaped the Eighties unscathed!

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    3. the pale pink lippy and love of brat pack movies came with me but left the blue eyeliner behind

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  20. What a lovely piece, well done to your Dad.
    Hope you had a happy Mother's day.


    I didn't.
    I forgot.
    My wife didn't

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  21. Love this piece Jody! Loved all the photos too. My mom was also an 'accident' when my grandmother was 42. Ha, luckily otherwise I wouldn't be here :)
    xo Mary Jo

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  22. Loved hearing about your grandmother..mine was born in 1906 in St Kilda , Melbourne when her mother was 40 and her siblings were 18, 17 and 16.

    Your mother was a beautiful bride ..

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    1. Hi Smr, Mum made her own wedding dress, can you believe that?

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    2. So your grandmother must have been only a little bit older than her nieces and nephews (Mum too)

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  23. What a lovely tribute and your Mum was such an elegant bride. I was interested to read that your Grandma was born in Manchester, just a forty -five minute drive from our home.

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  24. This is such an interesting story!

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