Be Our Guest entry: Letter, Gladys B White
Maker
White, Gladys
Production date
1931
Object detail
Brief Description
Letter to the Be Our Guest competition by Gladys B White. She writes about her memories of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. Her account, which was written a few weeks after the earthquake, was sent in by her daughter-in-law Alysson Harris.
Gladys was eighteen at the time of the 1931 earthquake. She worked in the office of Carlile, McLean, Scannell and Wood in Hastings where she was a shorthand typist. She ran out onto Queen Street, and saw the Post Office tower and other buildings collapse. She saw people covered in blood and others trying to rescue buried comrades. She ran home where she found her mother out on the street. She later located her cousin who had been in the top storey of Roach's building. Her cousin was rescued before the building caught fire.
Gladys spent all her money on food supplies, and gave some to her sister and her family to take back to the country. She writes that around sundown the fires began in town, and they could hear buildings collapsing. She remembers that the aftershocks had an upward motion. On Wednesday there was a rumour that there was to be another big quake, but it was false.
Gladys and her cousin volunteered for the Red Cross, based at the Central School. They worked on distributing the donated clothes. Tents were also given out to people and people were warned about boiling water before drinking it, as there was a danger of typhoid. Requests were made for lorries to take the dead to the cemetery. Men were busy digging graves and dozens of people were being buried.
Gladys was asked to became secretary to Major Power who was in charge of the Red Cross Department. Injured people were treated at the racecourse hospital and in town people were required to have permits to move around to prevent looting. At the time of writing Gladys says that the town is as busy as in pre-earthquake days and business is back to normal.
Gladys was eighteen at the time of the 1931 earthquake. She worked in the office of Carlile, McLean, Scannell and Wood in Hastings where she was a shorthand typist. She ran out onto Queen Street, and saw the Post Office tower and other buildings collapse. She saw people covered in blood and others trying to rescue buried comrades. She ran home where she found her mother out on the street. She later located her cousin who had been in the top storey of Roach's building. Her cousin was rescued before the building caught fire.
Gladys spent all her money on food supplies, and gave some to her sister and her family to take back to the country. She writes that around sundown the fires began in town, and they could hear buildings collapsing. She remembers that the aftershocks had an upward motion. On Wednesday there was a rumour that there was to be another big quake, but it was false.
Gladys and her cousin volunteered for the Red Cross, based at the Central School. They worked on distributing the donated clothes. Tents were also given out to people and people were warned about boiling water before drinking it, as there was a danger of typhoid. Requests were made for lorries to take the dead to the cemetery. Men were busy digging graves and dozens of people were being buried.
Gladys was asked to became secretary to Major Power who was in charge of the Red Cross Department. Injured people were treated at the racecourse hospital and in town people were required to have permits to move around to prevent looting. At the time of writing Gladys says that the town is as busy as in pre-earthquake days and business is back to normal.
Production date
1931
Production place
Production period
Production technique
Media/Materials description
A4 printed sheets, typed.
Media/Materials
Measurements
In the Be Our Guest Folder No 2.: Height x Width: 298 x 210mm
Classification terms
Subject person
Subject period
Subject date
03 Feb 1931
Credit line
gifted by Alysson Harris
Other number(s)
m2006/27/167, 36453
Public comments
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