Alfred Beazley

It was around that time that Alfred and Ani changed their religion from Church of England to Ratana. After the change of religion no child was reported to have died. The remaining ten children all survived to marry and between them produced the great multitude of Beazley descendants as you will see in the following chapters. Very little is known about Alfred William and the following are some of the things his children remember about him. He was a stern man. He was also a perfectionist, the kind, of man who expected you to do things right even if it meant doing it time and time again. If it was not done properly you were sent back to do it again. He was very strict when it came to his horses. Out of all the children, Fred was the only one allowed to work with the horses alone; the others were only allowed when he was present. As for Bob, he was not even allowed in the same paddock as the horses. He was also most particular when it came to his axe. If he put it down somewhere he could always tell if somebody had touched it. As the axe was  - always very sharp, Bill used it frequently and no matter how careful he was in putting it back, his father always knew it had been used.

Alfred was renowned for the way he "dressed" his pigs and for the way in which he prepared his hangi - he had no fancy trappings as we do now, he had no baskets for the food, everything went straight on to the stones. Even the way in which he preserved different types of food was unique.

His children remember him as a hard man. It was do or die, and when you couldn't do something, it was a boot up the bum. When you asked for money to say buy pants to wear to school, he would say he didn't have any or where did they expect him to get the money from. There was money to make up his home-brew though.

They recall a time when he went to the store to pay the bill, the money had been so long in his pocket when he took it out it had gone mouldy. Another thing he did was tie his £10 notes in a knot so he knew which ones they were without pulling them out of his pocket.

He brought his family up tough - survivors - and probably if he didn't some of them would not still be around today. He taught them many things through their upbringing and the various chores they all had to do, living mainly off their land during what to us were very harsh times. Though times were tough they were quite a hardy bunch who managed to come through it all and can now look back and appreciate their father's ways.

Alfred William died on 13 October 1953 at the age of seventy-two and after nearly fifty-one years of marriage. His greatest memorial are his descendants. His personality, his philosophy on life, the memories, he left this behind in the hearts of his family.

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Editorial Notes

• Accreditation for this panui is to Norman, Fred, Sam,  Ani & Susan, little extracts taken from each of their own korero.

• Not all of the pictures attached to the Reunion Book have captions so any assistance with describing these would be appreciated (see contacts)

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Alfred and Ani Chapter Attachments

(click images to enlarge)

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