Ch.4 - Pat (b.1900)

The family moved from Kirikiriroa to Gisborne in 1904 when father William became employed by the local borough council as caretaker of their Park Racecourse. This was where Pat spent his childhood and received his formal education. Pat started at Gisborne Upper Central School then was a foundation student at Te Hapara School when it opened in 1911 and was there until 1914. He then went on to Gisborne High School where he was an accomplished scholar. He regularly topped his class across most subjects, as did many of his siblings, eventually gaining his matriculation (later School Certificate). Pat was also a better-than-average sportsman, representing the school in the rugby first fifteen and other sporting events. His last day at High School was 10 Mar 1918.

School records has his next destination as Agricultural College although he must have changed his mind because he started an electrical apprenticeship instead, which he did not complete.

He taught briefly over in the King Country near where his sister Amelia and brother-in-law Hugh were living. Hugh and his brother Tom had a farm at Aukopae near Opatu. A book of Uncle Pat’s with his name and address on the front page tells of his time there.

Around this time, Pat had a relationship that produced a daughter. His daughter's name was Doris, and she was whangai-ed by grandmother Kate and was brought up at Cochrane St, Gisborne.

Pat went to work at the local Kaiti freezing works, on his discharge from the army. He worked in the freezing chambers and within a short time became leading hand. He remained with the freezing company for the rest of his working life, and at the time of his retirement was in the main office as their Public Relations Manager.After grandmother Kate had passed away, Pat and Lyd, with their family, moved into Cochrane Street for a time, but eventually moved back to their Pouawa home when the two daughters were married and had left home. Pat commuted to work from there for some years.

Family would also pay regular visits up to Pouawa to share time with Pat and Lyd. At night we would go eeling with a tilly lantern , spear and put any eels we caught onto a kerosene tin. Then the next morning it would be the men’s job to clean and smoke the eels. Pat had his own way of smoking eels which were very delicious.

Pat and Lyd eventually sold their Pouawa property and bought three sections in Pine Street, Gisborne where cousin Joan Robinson’s husband Clyde Edwards (Robin’s dad) built a house for them on one of the sections. They had the other 2 sections in garden. Uncle Pat was a keen gardener and used to grow a variety of vegetables that he shared with neighbors, friends and family. He also grew prize blooms including irises and dahlias. Pat and Lyd lived for the remainder of their lives in their Pine Street home.

After my own marriage I built a house about two blocks from Uncle Pat’s, and from then on we saw a lot of he and Lydia.

His Latter Years

Pat maintained an interest in the Whangara area and for many years served as a member on the Whangara B5 committee. Aunty Lyd herself was one of the larger shareholders in the corporations.

Aunty Lydia had been in ill health for some time and passed away in 1972. Pat was on his own, but being a good cook, housekeeper, and gardener kept himself busy in his retirement.Uncle Pat was something of an enigma, a good sportsman, a great reader, worker,and orator with a great war record. Very much a man’s man. As a young married man living in an isolated area with his family, without electricity and the comforts we have today, he took up Auntie Lyd’s knitting needles and with her tuition became a great knitter. He took up knitting again after Auntie Lyd had passed away, and I can still see him with glasses perched on his nose, knitting, reading a book and listening to the radio all at once. He knitted Shirley a great twin set, me a waistcoat, and Kay a purple jerkin.

Uncle Pat visited us often, usually with an armload of vegetables. Our two little children at the time adored him and we were never short of a babysitter. We were very close, and he was a favorite with our family.

A neighbor of Pat’s phoned me one day to tell me they had just got the doctor to uncle, who had been feeling off colour. I rushed around and saw him with his doctor who admitted him to hospital with quite a severe heart attack. He was stabilised and for a few days was quite comfortable when I visited him, but unfortunately passed away in hospital on 18^th November 1973, - (Newspaper Death Notice)

James Patterson (Pat) Priestley was taken back to Whangara by his family and laid to rest next to their beloved mother Riria.

Rest in Peace.

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Pat Military Record