Mildenhall, Melva Joan Interview

Today is the 11 April 2016. I’m interviewing Melva Mildenhall, retired, ex Herald-Tribune. Melva – would you like to tell us something about the life and times of your family.

Yes, my mother and father were both English. My Dad came out in 1921 and my mother in 1923. They came separately and only met out here.

Where did they come from in England?

My mother came from London and my father came from Berkshire. He had an uncle living at Johnsonville out of Wellington and he came to family, sort of thing, and my mother had a girl friend who had met one of my father’s cousins when he was in England at the tail end of the war and she was engaged to him and she came out here. So my mother when she decided she wanted to spread her wings she decided to come to New Zealand where her friend was. They were friends right ‘til my mother died, and they married cousins.

They went to Johnsonville originally?

Yes, yeah they were there temporarily until they got themselves organised. But my dad … Dad met her the first week she was here and then he went way up to Taumarunui. He had a sister up there and he worked up there for 12 months and it wasn’t until he came back to Wellington that they sort of got friendly.

When did they move to Hawke’s Bay … or didn’t they?

No, they lived … when they were first married they lived at Island Bay and then they built a house in Lower Hutt at Woburn and that was where I went to primary school … went to Waiwhetu School and then to Hutt Valley High.  And when I was 16 my dad decided that the city was too hard going for an ordinary labouring worker so they went for a holiday at Hamilton and a holiday at Westshore and they decided Hawke’s Bay was where they wanted to come.

That was a good choice wasn’t it?

So my Dad came here and bought the house. It’s had a lot done to it of course in the meantime and I was part way through High School and finished my high schooling what is now the Boys’ High School – co-ed those days. We finished for the year and my neighbour’s daughter was about my age and she was a junior at the Newspaper and they were looking for another junior so they said “Why don’t you go in and have an interview?” I said “I’m not going to work there” and my mother said to me “Well go for the experience … for the interview” and so I went for the interview. When I came home she said “Did you tell them you didn’t want the job?” I said “No, I was too scared. I’m starting on Monday”.

Did you play any sport when you were at High School?

No, I wasn’t a great sportsman. I did play badminton in the Church club and enjoyed that very much and did that for quite a number of years but that’s about all.

Which church was that?

Hastings Baptist Church. I’m still a member there.

And so … you’re off to the Tribune every morning, and so did you work in any particular area?

Well, yes … when I first went there, there was a big long bench under the windows and a great big huge ledger with the subscribers in it, and we used to hand write the next lot in it and there was about five columns and they had to be added up in your head – no adding machines or anything – and the boss used to sit on one page and I’d be on the … and you had to keep going fast because he was fast and I …. “not going to let him beat me”.  But each page balanced itself out and of course the newspaper was only twopence then – 2 pennies for a newspaper.

The wages were probably only £5 a week.

Oh, I didn’t get £2. No, no.

Oh, didn’t you really – so it’s all relevant isn’t it?

By the time the tax came out it was under £2.

So that would have been what year that you started?

Oh, it was back in the 40s. The war was still on and I remember VE day and VJ day.

What was Hastings like during the war?

‘Cause we were kids and that – that’s all we knew. We had quite a lot of … I remember entertainment in the Municipal Theatre. They used to have – I don’t know what they called it now – but they used to have entertainment and … like having Selwyn Toogood come along and things like that.  And they had prizes and raffles and things. We used to go up into the gods and sit on the wooden seats up there.

Were you in Hastings for the earthquake?

No, that was ‘31.  I remember – vaguely remember hearing adults talking about an earthquake that was further up the island but I wouldn’t have been very … I was born in ‘27 so I was old enough to remember something, but not much.

So brothers and sisters?

I had two brothers, two younger than me. Keith was 2 years younger than me and Brian was 9 years younger than me and that was our family.

Now at some stage or other you developed an interest in Girls’ Brigade.

Well I was one of the girls in a company in the Baptist Church in Lower Hutt when we came here. There was one at the Methodist Church but I didn’t know that.  And the Minister’s wife at the time, Mrs Doreen Grave, she was keen to have something and the Church had a Boys’ Brigade company, quite a successful one, and in those days there was nothing for girls. Now of course there’s everything, but there was nothing and she heard that I had been … well what was I – 16 … been a member of it and she made all the enquiries. And in those days when they started those things you had a ladies committee that controlled you, etc. etc. They were a jolly nuisance but still. Beulah Lord was in the Church and they persuaded her to be the Captain. I couldn’t be an officer until I was 18 and once I was 18 I got landed with the lot and she’d tell you today that she hated every minute that she did that work.

But you didn’t.

Well no, I was in it for longer than I care to think.

How long?

Well ‘til ‘85 or after that. ‘85 was … I got the medal. About ‘85 I gave up being the Captain but I still used to go and help with crafts and take devotionals and things like that.

So what did Girls’ Brigade do? Because a lot of us don’t know anything about it.

I should have had some of those papers here.  It’s a Christian-based organisation and we had … we always had a devotional and encouraged the girls to take part if they wished.  And I was never a pianist so I always had to have – find somebody who was willing to come along and play the piano for us. I’ve had a tape recorder with tapes made so we had music that way. We had games, sports, crafts and things like that, that girls like doing, you know, all those …

Yes, I suppose in some ways it was probably a bit like Girl Guides?

Well it was. Very similar, just a different name. I mean I don’t know exactly what they do but I would think it was very much the same.  And I think probably the biggest numbers was when we had about 42 on the roll. I’ve had a lot of … not so many now, but a number of ladies in the Church who were my girls way, way, way back. And we’re all in our eighties … or beginning eighties … now.  ‘Cause I wasn’t much older than some of the early teenagers that came in.

But you knew what made it work didn’t you?

I had to learn.

And you were bossy too by the sounds of it.

Oh well, I knew what I wanted. At one stage here we had about 6 companies. St Andrew’s had one in the early days but it didn’t last very long.

There was one in Havelock.

Yes there was – that was latter years. There was one down at St Leonards, the Methodist one, where the play area … the artists’ sign … down there and there was a strong one at Taradale and two or three in Napier.

So it was a very active organisation.

Oh, absolutely.  And we’d have area competitions and area Church parades and got our flags and everything.

Melva – why did it gradually stop?

I would say lack of leadership. Nobody wanted to take over. I think you could have still got kids – girls would sort of come. Because there’s kids out there who don’t go to ballet and don’t do some of these other things and that. There’s no lack of girls, I don’t think that for a minute. But the young lady that was taking over from me, she was one of my girls – 6-year-olds that came in and went right through until she was old enough to take over but she was a Salvationist. She worked in the Church office so she had close connection with the Baptists, but when she wanted to give up nobody wanted to take over.

It’s the same with lots of organisations, Lions and Rotary. They’re all getting smaller. I know the Hastings Rotary Club used to have 110 members. There’s only 10 members left.

Oh, I can believe that.

And it’s almost at the stage of …

“Can we go on any longer?”

That’s right. Most of them … when they die that’ll be it ‘cause they’re all very elderly.

And yet you see – people say – oh well, women are working longer now, and mothers are working and the rest of it.  But I worked all my life and fitted all that in. I used to take a week’s holiday to take 30 kids away to Waikanae to a ‘weekaway’.

So you used to have these ‘weekaways’ …

Oh, yes, yes, yes. In 1962 I went to Britain with a group of Girls’ Brigade. 80 went from New Zealand and we went for the Diamond Jubilee of Girls’ Brigade in London.

So it’s an English-founded …

Oh, yeah – more English. I think it was actually founded in Ireland but of course it got stronger in England. And we had things at the Albert Hall and all sorts of things there. And ‘course I was interested in going because I had relations there, you see.  My mother and father … Dad still had sisters and Mum had a sister-in-law and nieces and I caught up with them all over the years but the numbers are getting smaller. But no, I had six months leave from work – it was great, it was really great.

Did you have any other interests? Did you play bowls or croquet or cards?  What about mah jong or bridge?

Well, no no no.  No.  Not cards. My sister-in-law is crazy on cards and she has a sister that – they used to play twice a week, and her sister was killed in a car accident on Christmas Day.   And I said “Shirley, I’ll do anything for you, but don’t ask me to play cards.”

I know when I was growing up all my friends families used to play cards with one another.

Oh, yes. If they do they’re really in.

So I really had enough card playing with them when I was young.  I didn’t need to play any more in my life.

No, you had enough, yeah.  Oh, I mean I played with the kids, you know – Snap and all those sort of things and that – Patience and those sort of things.  But no, I’ve been interested in – I used to do all my own dress making which I don’t do today. I’ve got the equipment for it but … the spirit might be willing but physically I’m not. Anyway you go to the shop. It’s a different world out there now. And embroidery and knitting and crocheting and all those things.

Now you mention that you did a trip with your group to England. Have you travelled much in New Zealand?

No, not as much as you probably could have. I had a friend at Gisborne and I used to go there sometimes. My brother and a friend and I used to go to Taupo a lot and then we’d go through to Rotorua, and we’ve gone way up to Whangarei and up round there. I haven’t been to Taranaki. I’ve been to the South Island. My friend and I walked the Milford Track one year.

That’s exciting.

It was hard work.

You enjoyed it, though. When you finished.

Oh, yes.  That’s right. So we went right down South and right down there, and then another time she and I went over the Nelson way. We went over on the ferry and I picked up a rental car at the Port. She was an English nurse that came out from England. She was on night duty so she went to sleep on me while I had to find my way from Picton over to Nelson but we got there. No, no – I could’ve … probably should’ve … seen more.  But when I was away with the big group we did a fortnight’s tour of the Continent which was Belgium and Germany and Austria and Italy and all round there.  And we also did one of England – that was about 10 days and since then my English nurse friend … she died some years ago … I’m in touch with her sisters.  And her sister lives at Birkenhead by Liverpool and I’ve had holidays over there. “Where are we going, we’re going on a holiday, we’ll go up to Scotland”. So we go way up – way up to Scotland, and another time … oh, I’ve been to England about five times.

It’s nice that you have been able to maintain a friendship with the family.

Oh, yes. Well she got involved in Girls’ Brigade because if you’re my friend you’ve got to help. She had emigrated to New Zealand as a nurse and she had a berth in the boat with … one of the Girls’ Brigade girls came back later than we did.  And Jessie wrote to me and said “there’s an English nurse come out and when she got to Wellington she found out she’s been sent to Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board – will you befriend her?”  My Mum and Dad were alive then and I said “I don’t know any nurses … how will I get on with a nurse”? Mum said “Well, you’ll have to go and make contact with her”. So I rang the Nurses Home and they said she’s still on duty – I’ll get her to ring you. So when she rang I said who I was and she knew from the other friend so I said “Would you like to come for tea?” She said “That would be nice”. I said “I’ll pick you up”. And she didn’t tell me till years later, she thought I was on my own but when she came there was Mum and Dad and my two brothers and I. She came into a family. She was always part of our family after that.

And so you became lifelong friends.  Now can you think of any other interesting things that you did?   We’ll have a look at the photos in a few minutes.

Well Melva, we’ve just sat here and looked through ‘This Is Your Life’ book – the most complete dossier I’ve ever seen of ‘This Is Your Life’ book, and so much history relating to Melva’s 57 years in the Girls’ Brigade.  Melva thank you very much for allowing us to interview you and I assure you this will be a great record for one day. Thank you.

You’re welcome.