Be Our Guest entry: Letter and photographs, Joan Masters
Maker
Masters, Joan
Production date
2005
Object detail
Brief Description
Letter and photograph to the Be Our Guest competition from Joan Masters (nee Rees) entitled: 3 February 1931 - That Unforgettable Day.
a) Letter from Joan Masters detailing her experiences during the 1931 earthquake. Joan was in Standard Four at Taradale School when the earthquake struck. She went home to find her mother crying in the kitchen as all the food was spilled all over the floor. Her brother Jack was 16 and rode from Boys' High School to the Hospital to find their father who was Board Secretary. His office was on the ground floor of the Nurses' Home which had collapsed. While Jack was there he was asked to crawl into a wrecked ward to give a hypodermic needle to a nurse to use while she and the patients awaited rescue. He had to return to Greenmeadows with the news about their father.
Joan's sister Mary arrived, having walked the five miles from Napier Girls' High School. Their father arrived home later in a borrowed car. He had helped move the hospital patients, staff and equipment to the racecourse at Greenmeadows. He dragged a typist outside during the earthquake. Two young men from the office as well as many of the nurses died.
b) Photographs include: Standard 2 to 3 class at Greenmeadows School in 1929 (Joan has circled herself); a street photograph of Joan and two other teenagers in school uniform (from the mid 1930s); photocopies from a book of a photograph showing the Rees family Oldsmobile under the portico of the Nurses' Home and of a photograph of the collapsed building; a photocopy of a photograph of her father Mr E T Rees with the car lent to him by Peach's garage, near the collapsed band rotunda on Marine Parade; a copy of a photograph of Mr E T Rees in later years and a copy of his obituary from a newspaper; and a photo of Joan Masters in 2003.
a) Letter from Joan Masters detailing her experiences during the 1931 earthquake. Joan was in Standard Four at Taradale School when the earthquake struck. She went home to find her mother crying in the kitchen as all the food was spilled all over the floor. Her brother Jack was 16 and rode from Boys' High School to the Hospital to find their father who was Board Secretary. His office was on the ground floor of the Nurses' Home which had collapsed. While Jack was there he was asked to crawl into a wrecked ward to give a hypodermic needle to a nurse to use while she and the patients awaited rescue. He had to return to Greenmeadows with the news about their father.
Joan's sister Mary arrived, having walked the five miles from Napier Girls' High School. Their father arrived home later in a borrowed car. He had helped move the hospital patients, staff and equipment to the racecourse at Greenmeadows. He dragged a typist outside during the earthquake. Two young men from the office as well as many of the nurses died.
b) Photographs include: Standard 2 to 3 class at Greenmeadows School in 1929 (Joan has circled herself); a street photograph of Joan and two other teenagers in school uniform (from the mid 1930s); photocopies from a book of a photograph showing the Rees family Oldsmobile under the portico of the Nurses' Home and of a photograph of the collapsed building; a photocopy of a photograph of her father Mr E T Rees with the car lent to him by Peach's garage, near the collapsed band rotunda on Marine Parade; a copy of a photograph of Mr E T Rees in later years and a copy of his obituary from a newspaper; and a photo of Joan Masters in 2003.
Maker
Production date
2005
Production place
Production period
Production technique
Media/Materials description
Printed, photocopied and typed black ink on paper. Colour photographs, A3 colour photocopy.
Media/Materials
Measurements
In the Be Our Guest Folder No 2: Height x Width: 298 x 210mm
Height x Width: 98 x 84mm
Height x Width: 98 x 84mm
Classification terms
Subject person
Subject period
Subject date
03 Feb 1931
Post 1931
Post 1931
Credit line
gifted by Mrs Joan Masters
Other number(s)
m2006/27/88, 34912
Public comments
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