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.