Narrative of Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer), 94 years, of Nelson. Tape recorded on 15th December 1983. Transcribed by Les Slater, Richmond Borough Council. Mrs Haycock is a sister of Mr Hartley Palmer of Richmond.

Mrs Haycock studied nursing and midwifery in New Zealand before the first world war, went to England in 1917 to study midwifery, and practised as a domiciliary midwife in the Nelson and Marlborough districts - and further afield - for many years, based in Richmond. Mrs Haycock was closely associated with the Plunket Society in Richmond for many years.

"I was born in Para, in Marlborough, the halfway house

between Blenheim and Picton.

I had a music teacher, a dear little old lady, Mrs Baillie,

who learnt music off Queen Victoria. She used to pay a guinea

a lesson for her music. And she was my godmother; she called

me Ruth Anna - Ruth after the Ruth in the Bible, and Anna

after my mother. And she used to play beautifully. Captain

Baillie; he was a member of Parliament. Very fine people.

Well I went to Tuamarina until I was twelve, and then

I camAto Nelson when I was eighteen.

We lived in Brightwater. My father bought a farm there.

I was working in Richmond.

2 (Mrs Rath Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

When we lived at Grove my mother made butter; once, when 17

my mother was away, I made 88 lb of butter and got eight pence

a pound for it. It was sent up to Picton by old Mr Bowden.

He was the captain of the boat. He used to cane twice a week,

on Wednesday and Saturday, down to the Grove. And the

Havelock people would cone through on the coach and bring

their mail, through the Grove, and put it on Mr Bowden's boat.

We would send up the butter by that boat; it came at nine

o'clock, arrived at Picton at 12. We had three hours up in

Picton. The grocer used to take the butter and put the

groceries back in the box, and we'd go back in the afternoon.

Mr Philpotts the grocer; he bought the butter and supplied

the Oxley Hotel.

Lots of times we travelled to Wei lington on the ferries.

The first time when I was nine I went across and when I was 11,

frcm Picton.

And when I was in Brightwater and Richmond I went across

on the ferry frcm Nelson. Once I went because I nursed my

sister there with her first infant.

3 (Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

I had a year's training as a nurse, in maternity work,

with nurse Hewitson, in a private hone, in Victory Square

in Nelson. And then I was able to nurse. I used to go around.

Anybody wanting a nurse, for babies or anything else.

I wanted to pass my midwifery exam, so I could get the

highest, finish up rry nursing training. So I decided to go to

London where I could do it in six months. I couldn't get

any pay. But it took a year here in New Zealand and still

no pay. So, I always had a hankering to go to London, and

to see ny granny's old heme up in Newcastle, West Hartlepool.

So there was my chance; it was 1917. No one wanted me to go

- nobody. But I was going. And went. No regrets.

We went over on the SS Rotorua - a big boat; the last

load of women allowed to leave New Zealand. We were amongst the

first to go through the Panama Canal, which was very wonderful -

how the water cones up and goes down I recall; into Bilboa on

the other side of that land.

We called into Jamaica to get a gun. I don't know what

sort of gun.

4 (Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

We called into Newport News to load up with coal - it

was a coal-fueled boat; three days there, and then we arrived in

Southampton and went up by a special train to London. And it

was arranged among the passengers that if any of us could meet

at Harrod's store in London, we could have a sort of get together.

There were 32 of us off the boat that went there. And that was

when we learnt that our boat was torpedoed and sunk three and a

half hours after it had left the dock. It was only three

days after we arrived.

I don't know why they didn't unload there, because it was

such a perilous time to be travelling. They had all the butter

and cheese and meat which England was wanting. It was torpedoed

just out of Southampton.

I don't know if it was a field gun or naval gun we took on

board in Jamaica. We all went ashore and had a dinner at the

hotel, a nice hotel. Everything was carried on the waiters'

heads - the women and men carried it all on their heads. When

we sat down to dinner there were eight different knives and

forks each side of us. So I said to the waiter, 'I want to

try every one of these, please'. I want to see just what you've

got, ' and he joined in the fun.

5 (Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

I went to West Hartlepool and stayed with my mother's

family there. I stayed in the same old house that granny

lived in.

And her father wanted her to marry a rich man; she married

the head gardener. She went off with the head gardener; they

went straight down to the church on a Saturday morning, when she

was supposed to be getting the groceries. I walked straight

into that church one day, and I could imagine my grandmother

walking in.

They were married and her father disinherited her straight

away And so they came out here in 1843. And when I was little,

this I remember; we were very fond of each other. And she said,

telling of her story, 'Ruthie, I have no regrets, I'd do the same

again.'

She had a hard time, , too? j of course, in those days..

After my return to New Zealand I was the only domiciliary

midwife in the district for a long time, and I'd go fran place

to place. I'd stay at each place and nurse that person while

I was there. I'd stay with than and take charge of the whole

6 (Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

house, the children, make jam or do anything. I only got

two pounds a week paid by the family.

I went as far as Palmerston North, where I nursed my

sister's, and to Blenheim and nursed my cousin, and Noel

Bythell up at Richmond. His mother was one of the Hales .

She was the eldest of thirteen, and she wanted me to

nurse her, and I nursed her with her first, Noel Bythell,

and he's a Church of England vicar now. Up in Brightwater

he was for a while. He now lives up in Richmond.

And then there was an old Mrs Grant (?) in Brightwater,

and her son Will was a schoolteacher for years and years.

Well I nursed Mrs Will Bryant for two of her children. She called

one Ruth, after me.

I nursed over in Motueka - at the McGaveston's - I went over

with the coach. And then the coach driver told me, 'You're

a day to late, the baby arrived in the night!' And when I

came home they brought me hone on the side chair of the motorbike.

I went to the west coast - I had a cousin there, and to

Murchison - I nursed my sister down there with her eldest

7 (Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

daughter, born on Christmas day, and she's called Ruth after me.

She's now Ruth Wells and lives up at Hope. Six daughters altogether

have been named after me.

And when I was in London the last person I nursed there,

she called her daughter Ruth. And I talked so much about

New Zealand, that they came out here, afterwards! They now

live in Auckland, and they have no regrets at coming here. And

last year, one son who was born out here, he came to see me;

Eric Wilson. He said, 'Do you remember me, Eric Wilson?'

Of course I do; he was very pleased, about that.

And while I was in England I nursed in a private nursing

heme in West Hartlepool, and the matron came out here afterwards.

And ray great aunt married a doctor. Dr Eustace Swanick,

and he was my great uncle, you see, and this nurse was sort of

under him; that was where I was night nurse and so on. He

married my great aunt, granny Hastilow's sister.

My London trip was most interesting. I, a little thing,

arrived there and knew no one. I went straight frem the boat

to the hospital. I paid to go in, twenty guineas, to enter the

8 (Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

the hospital. We got no wages the whole six months we were there.

We had to take a half-day off, and stay out for tea, whatever

day we would like off.

I sort of had my own cash before I went, what I'd earned.

Grace (?) used to send occasionally, father sent a tenner, and

my husband, well he sent what he could afford, Denise sent five. 7■:«

But there was not much of that.

The matron where I was night nursing in West Hartlepool;

she came out here. And she died out here. She came straight

out here to me.

And ttifrter-wrre the last patient I nursed in London, called

her daughter Ruth and came out here, and this other one that

I was a night nurse for, the matron came out here; I must

have talked so often and so well about New Zealand that they

were impressed enough to cane here.

In my hone in Richmond: When I was firtst trained.

Dr Truby King started the Plunket movement. Well I was taught

that and I was doing it when they started to it, you see, in

\ ik

9 (Mrs Rath Haycock (nee Palmer) 15 xii 83)

Richmond. Well Mrs Hazel Wilkes - Mrs Howard Wilkes - and I

were the first two to start the Plunket Society in Richmond.

There was another lady - I think she was a Mrs Gilbert - but Mrs

Hazel Wilkes was eleven years a president, and I was a president

for seven years and I belonged to it for thirtytwo years, on the

canmittee.

And I lived forty years on the same farm. When I came back

from London, my husband to be decided to get married, and that

was our first heme, our own hone. We were down at Wainui street

for thirteen years after we sold the house in Richmond. I've been

here twelve.

... The house up on the bank. That old house burned down,

and it was a Bill 3nith who did it, and then he got another house

on the main road. He didn't want that house so he burned it down!

Sullivans lived in it before it burned down. They builA the place.

A wooden house, a very nice house, up on the hill. Very fine A ULL1 •

GiM3te.

r

people. ...

wDA recollection by Mrs Ruth Haycock (nee Palmer) about her days in London in 1917. Transcribed to typescript by Les Slater from shorthand notes made on 17 April 1984. Mrs Haycock lived in Richmond for many years where she was a domiciliary midwife throughout the Waimea, and closely associated with the Plunket Society for 32 years. Mrs Haycock is a sister of Hartley Palmer, and now lives in Nelson.

"I went to England in 1917 for midwifery training. The matron

of the hospital where I was training was very good to me; if

there were any tickets given to the hospital, for anything, like

the theatrical performances, or a dinner, anything like that, well

she always ensured that I got one. And people were very good to me.

There I was, over there by myself, having travelled all

that way as one of the passengers on the S.S. Rotorua, through

the Panama Canal. And just after we had disenbarked early in

England and travelled instead directly overland by a special

train to London, instead of sailing further, the Rotorua sailed

out, with all that cargo of meat and cheese so very much needed

in England, and it was torpedoed two hours later. We didn't know

about that until we - the passengers who had disembarked - met

later in Harrods for a reunion dinner.

I knew no-one there in London when I arrived. There was my

family's - my grandmother's, granny Hastilow's (Marion Hastilow)

I tA (Mrs Ruth Haycock, nee Palmer, 17 iv 84)

people in West Hartlepool, but no-one else. And I' d missed

ray brother Hartley. As I was arriving he was on his way back

to New Zealand, invalided, on the hospital ship.

But I have always had ray faith in God. I believe I

served His purpose and that He watched over me. So I was

always confident that I should be all right. And in London

so many people took an interest in me and there were so many

invitations to places.

At the hospital we had one afternoon a week off. And we

could choose what it would be. There were many things to see.

Among the places I visited, one I raneiriber well was the concert

the Queen gave at the Albert Hall, for nurses, for all nurses.

I was given a ticket and the time to go. And the Albert Hall

was full, absolutely full of nurses. You've never seen so many

nurses as in that hall!

And I attended a garden party given by the Bishop of London.

There was I, this little New Zealand girl - well, I was actually

24 then, but I was very much by myself except for the people and

the families who befriended me.

When I was nursing, there in London, and it was a bit of

general nursing as well as midwifery training, one of ray patients

i t(Mrs Ruth Haycock, nee Palmer, 17 iv 84)

was a girl with measles, Olwin Ruth Davis - and it's after her

name that I called my daughter Olywyn, but I spell it with a 'y' -

and her parents were formerly the mayor and mayoress of Fulham,

and he was then the Member of Parliament for Fulham: The Hon.

Mr Davis. They were Welsh, and he was quite highly regarded in

Parliament.

Because I nursed their daughter Olwin they invited me to

dinner at their house. The other guests were the Prime Minister

- Mr David Lloyd-George, Mr Clanent Atlee, and Lord Asquith.

And I was the only other guest. They were very interested in me

because I was frcm New Zealand and because I had cane there all by

myself. We talked, just talked. They talked about England and

things and asked me about New Zealand and my family. I told

them about where I came from, Marlborough, Nelson and the Waimeas.

The Davis family had servants - three maids, one butler, and

one other man, but they weren't able with the war to keep the two

men and soon after that dinner there were only the maids left.

At West Hartlepool my grandmother Hastilow's sister Edith

and brother Edwin were still there. Edwin was the ninth and

youngest in the family, granny's family, and he was bom in 1851.

His children were Hope, Sylvia, Ruth and Brian.

(Mrs Ruth Haycock, nee Palmer, 17 iv 84)

Aunt Edith married Dr Eustice Swanick who had a private hospital.

I asked Dr Swanick if I may see seme operations, because I had

seen nothing of operations, really, except those associated with

obstetric training, and I thought it would be interesting and

might be useful to see other operations. So I did see some of

these.

Now about the Plunket in Richmond. In the Plunket rocm

there is a list of those who served the Society in Richmond.

And it does not have my name or Mrs Johnson's on it. It was made by

Mrs Hazel Wilkes who was president for eleven years. I was president

for seven years and Mrs Johnson for six. Altogether I was president

and a member of the comnittee for thirtytwo years. But we're not

mentioned on the local Plunket record: Mrs Wilkes left us, Mrs Johnson

and myself, off the list! I think that was very unfair but I can't

say more than that. I was asked several times to be president, but

I declined because I didn't have much education and wasn't really a

trained childrens' nurse. But when they said that the Plunket there

would have to close, and the people would have to use the Stoke rooms

or those in town, in Nelson, I said ' No, it shan't close for want of

someone to do the work. I'll do it. ' So it stayed open and I was

associated with it for 32 years all in all.