There are times when we miss writing about our great
grandparents regardless of how much information you have about them in the
middle of their lives. George Francis Lissington is one such person. I have
slowly collected information about him over time and have used several sources
of information from old newspapers on Paperspast, archival records from the
National Archives in New Zealand, and other records including the electoral
rolls from Ancestry to track his movements. Over time there will be more
information that I can use and gather about him. This is not all the information I have on George, but relevant for the purpose of the blog as to tell a short story about him.
George Francis Lissington was born in Feilding on the
18th September 1900 to James Alfred and Catherine Lissington, nee
Hitchman. He was the third of 7 children born between the New Zealand towns of
Feilding and Palmerston North. He could have gone to school in Wellington, but
I think I was looking at a cousin who attended the Wellington school especially
in Karori where a Lissington was on the school board there and also on the
Karori Borough Council before it amalgamated with Wellington. I don’t know much
at all about his younger days before he married and there seems to be very
little in the newspapers. George Lissington married Hazel Milverton in
Palmerston North in June 23rd, 1926. They would go onto honeymoon in
New Plymouth.[1]
The Milverton family were well known in Palmerston North as Hazel’s father
Percival Amos Milverton was superintendent of the Palmerston North Fire Brigade,
when George and Hazel were married. I don’t know how they would have met, but
they were living in the same township and it would have been a small town in
the early 1900s.
They would have their first child in August 1927, Nola
Lissington in Palmerston North, followed by George in October 1930 and Peggy
Lissington in September 1933 in Parparoa. The New Zealand electoral register
has the family located 39 Alma road, Wanganui and George’s occupation as a milk
vendor in 1928. There is a story from Peggy in 2016, that George Lissington
helped out during the 1931 earthquake in Napier by ferrying people out of the
earthquake zone. Between 1935 and 1954, according to the electoral roll, George
Lissington and family lived in Huarau located between Paparoa and Maungaturoto.
The towns are in what is now known as Northland, located north of Auckland. According
to Peggy, George cleared the land himself to be used as a farm and over the
years between the birth of the children and early 1941, two houses had been
built. The first house had no roof when George was born in 1930. The family
stayed in a tent until the roof was put on as George himself built it. They had
an outside toilet known as an outhouse. Food and meat would be delivered to
their mailbox. The building that replaced the first house was completed not
long before young George passed away. The new house meant they would have power
connected and an inside toilet. The old house was used for storage and a
laundry.
Around 1936, George was a committee member of the
Paparoa School, where he resigned as his children were now going to the school
at Maunguroto.[2]
Young George had appeared several times including Nola in the newspapers
looking for pen friends. The young boy, George passed away in 1941 from a
coughing fit as he had whooping cough. A blood vessel had burst and he had
haemophilia. George was buried in St Mark’s Cemetery in Paparoa. According to
the news article the family were highly respected in the area[3] The grave is still there
in the cemetery at the St Mark’s Anglican Church.
George had been called up in the ballot for world war
2 for their service from 1942.[4] Since New Zealand had
conscription throughout World War 2, George had to face the military board to explain
why he had not joined the army as his age group had been called up by ballot.
George was able to avoid the scrutiny as he joined the Home Guard in 1943, even
though he was a farmer.[5] One story from during the
war was of three American soldiers on leave, whose vehicle broke down outside
the farm gate of the farm who were on leave from either Warkworth or Wellsford
on their way to Dargaville. They approached the house in the morning and was
able to let the camp know they were not AWOL. Nola worked for the telephone
exchange at the time, so could have been the one who put them through to
whoever was in charge. The soldiers would become frequent visitors to the farm
when on leave.
Around 1950 George was looking at selling the property
in Maungatoroto, but for some reason the sale fell through. I do not know if George
and family were still staying on the farm while they were trying to sell the
property or as per Peggy’s recollections, they had moved out in late 1949. The
Archive record does include, George had bought the property in May 1932 for £1550
and was intending to sell it for £3985 as he had improved the property, which
would have been the clearing and the buildings. The property included a
Dwelling, cowshed, piggeries, garage and cottage. The farm was classed as a
Dairy farm and includes 40 cows and 250 sheep. The size of land owned by George
Lissington was 190 acres and 11 perches in the parish of Paparoa. The first
sale fell through for some reason, but that did not stop George from trying
again less than a month later.[6]
Within a month of the failed sale of the farm in 1950,
George tried to lease the land to another company and the records include the
reason why he was wanting to lease the land. Due to the ill health of his wife,
he was required to vacate the land immediately and take up employment elsewhere.
Peggy has written that the reason for Hazel’s illness was from the death of
George in 1940 as she had never gotten over it. This document includes a list
of stock, plant and implement within the farm. The consent was also withdrawn,
which it makes two within a period of months in 1950.[7] I do not have any further
information about the farm being sold unless I try and get hold of the land
records, but at least for now I have a list of what was actually on the farm.
70 milking cows, 5 yearling cows, 15 calves, 5 pigs, 1
boar, 10 store pigs, 26 weaner pigs.
Plant and implements
3 cow milking plant G.B.B. with electric motor
shafting and belting.
1 lister separator 80 gallon
1 hot water cylinder
1 skim milk pump
1 water pump – McL Wallace with electric motor and
piping
1 tractor
1 mower for tractor
1 hay sweeper
1 top dresser
1 trailer
1 plough
1 set harrows, posts and timber
George and family appear again in 1954 within the
electoral roll as living in Weaver street in Whangarei and was listed as a contractor.
It would mean the farm was sold between 1950 and 1954, where they moved to
Whangarei. He did end up at another farm in Tutamoe, which is recorded in the
1957 electoral roll. The farm was a mix of dairy and sheep and lived until
George became ill with cancer, which was successfully treated through an
operation. They moved back to Whangarei where George would work for a bakery by
the name of Davidson’s, packaging up the bread at night before he retired. The bakery
was located in Kamo. George and Hazel would live in Dundonald road for a number
of years until moving to McMillian Avenue, where the electoral roll picked them
up again in 1978. George passed away from a heart attack in April of 1979 and
is buried in Maunu cemetery in Whangarei.
Sources
Land valuation - George Francis Lissington, to Douglas
Alfred Williams, New Zealand National Archives file
Land valuation - George Francis Lissington to George
Francis Lissington agent of Hillcrest farms limited, 1950, New Zealand National
Archives file
New Zealand Electoral rolls, 1853 – 1981, Ancestry
website
Granny’s Life – short memoir, unpublished
Untitled, ‘Wedding, Lissington – Milverton’, Manawatu
Standard, 26 June 1926, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19260626.2.128,
accessed 24/09/2019.
Untitled, ‘Paparoa’,
Northern Advocate, 7 August 1936, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19360807.2.88,
accessed 24/09/2019.
‘Untitled,
‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 3 September 1941,
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19410903.2.4,
accessed 24/09/2019.
Unknown,
‘Additional cases before appeal board’, Northern Advocate, 13 May 1943,
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19430513.2.64,
accessed 24/09/2019.
Unknown,
‘Men in today’s Ballot not to act
precipitatley’, Northern Advocate, 23 December 1942, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19421223.2.58,
accessed 24/09/2019.
[1] Untitled, ‘Wedding, Lissington –
Milverton’, Manawatu Standard, 26 June 1926, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19260626.2.128,
accessed 24/09/2019.
[2] Untitled,
‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 7 August 1936, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19360807.2.88,
accessed 24/09/2019.
[3] ‘Untitled,
‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 3 September 1941,
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19410903.2.4,
accessed 24/09/2019.
[4] Unknown,
‘Men in today’s Ballot not to act
precipitatley’, Northern Advocate, 23 December 1942, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19421223.2.58,
accessed 24/09/2019.
[5] Unknown,
‘Additional cases before appeal board’, Northern Advocate, 13 May 1943
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19430513.2.64,
accessed 24/09/2019.
[6]
Land valuation between George Francis Lissington and Alfred Williams, 1950
[7] Land
valuation, George Francis Lissington to George Francis Lissington, 1950
