Forgotten women’s VE plaque remembered with love
Stories of love and service emerged after a forgotten plaque was unearthed celebrating women who served in World War II.
On Friday, around 60 men and women gathered in Anzac Park to remember these women in an event organised by Gail Collingwood together with a group from the women’s section of the RSA.
The plaque in the park had been installed on Victory in Europe (VE) day 30 years ago to mark its 50th anniversary. On Friday, it again served as a site of remembrance on the day’s 80th commemorations with many of those attending wearing the medals of family members.
Collingwood said the plaque had been covered in low shrubs and could only be seen on your hands and knees. It was cleaned up last year by Brian McIntyre at the request of the RSA, while the Nelson City Council cut back the greenery.
Several people at the event shared moving stories.
Diane Grooby’s mother Thelma Martin was in artillery and served at Tāhunanui Beach operating searchlights. Prior to that she had been sent from Wakefield to the Army camp at Burnham, near Christchurch, for around 18 months.
“She left the love of her life behind,” Grooby said.
Fortunately, that beau, Richard David Taylor, kept in contact, sending regular love letters.
When she died, Grooby and her sister placed the letters in her casket. “They were hers and they were beautiful,” Grooby said.
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack read stories of wartime women who were connected to the region gleaned from the Parliamentary Library service.
Staff Nurse Margaret Jean McKegney (nee Brown) trained as a nurse in Nelson, served in hospital ships, and in Italy and Egypt during World War II.
Serving on a ship for almost a year, the vessel took British soldiers to Johannesburg, including some blinded soldiers, and looking after them became her specialty.
“It was awful seeing young men with serious injuries, but you just had to handle it for the boys’ sake,” she told an interviewer later.
Air Transport Auxiliary pilot, Third Officer Betty Ellice Black had to pay her own fare to get to the UK to join the Air Transport Auxiliary. Initially, she worked as a taxi pilot, before training on Spitfires and other aircraft. Black returned to New Zealand in 1956, and lived in Nelson until she died in 1977.
Penny Molnar spoke to the group about her mother Kathleen Gunn, who went to England after training as a nurse in 1938, but when the Blitz started in September 1940, she “didn’t like being amongst that”.
By chance, she happened to meet one of the doctors she knew from Christchurch Hospital when they stopped in England on their way to Cairo, who suggested she join up – which she did.
She was in the 10th hospital at Helwan, near Cairo, nursing those who came from Crete. One of those men was James Harley, Molnar’s father, and a romance blossomed.
On February 11, 1942, they were married in Cairo, and the hospital matron managed to get Kathleen a job on the hospital ship that was sending James home because he’d been wounded.
The pair were the first New Zealand Army personnel to get married in Cairo, Molnar said, and her understanding was that was only because James was coming home.
“To me, war is senseless and pointless, but thank goodness it also meant my parents met each other,” she said.
“My siblings and I have had the best life, so I’m just so grateful to them.”
MC Olivia Hall said the plaques at Anzac Park and at Marsden Cemetery stood as a reminder of our ongoing gratitude and recognition that peace was not secured by soldiers alone.
“It was forged through the combined efforts of all who supported the cause, including the women who stood steadfastly behind and beside our men in uniform,” she said.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
This Post Has 0 Comments