Letter, Winifred McCutcheon
Maker
McCutcheon, Winifred
Production date
Jun 2001
Object detail
Brief Description
A three-page letter headed: The memoirs of Winifred McCutcheon (nee Maxwell) of the 1931 Earthquake in Napier.
Winifred was a cashier at the Napier Borough Council at the time of the earthquake. In her letter she recalls the staff members and their roles, and describes the events of 3 February 1931. Staff members who worked with Winifred at the time and listed in her letter are: Mr Alex Oliver; Mr Jack Coddington; Mr Harold L Lanning; Mr Leo Reid; Arthur Boggs; David Christie; Vivian Clareburt; Harry Walker; Norman Griffiths; Miss Janey Murphy; Miss Violet Dean and Miss Enid Dick. She also lists Mr John Dick as the person who appointed her to her position; Mr John Cushing as Acting Assistant Town Clerk and Mr Fred R Watters as being appointed to the position in January 1931.
Winifred writes of how the staff vacated the Borough Council building, and what she witnessed at the Masonic Hotel as she and a colleague made their way to their homes, through the business area of Hastings Street and along Marine Parade. Winifred and her colleague, Enid Dick, parted company in Raffles Street and Winifred made her way home through Sale Street and into Wellesley Road, where she found her mother had avoided injury from a neighbour's chimney which had fallen into their driveway.
Winifred's brother Jim was employed as a bank teller in the Bank of New South Wales in Hastings Street and survived by sheltering under a desk as the building collapsed. Her elder brother Ernest was a senior clerk at the Public Works Department office, a wooden building in Shakespeare Road.
She writes of there being no water, gas, electricity, sewerage but that tents had been found for people to sleep in. With the impending threat of disease, she tells of women and children being evacuated to a base at Waipukurau, established by the Salvation Army.
Winifred has not signed the letter but typed her name as Winifred J M McCutcheon, June 2001.
Winifred was a cashier at the Napier Borough Council at the time of the earthquake. In her letter she recalls the staff members and their roles, and describes the events of 3 February 1931. Staff members who worked with Winifred at the time and listed in her letter are: Mr Alex Oliver; Mr Jack Coddington; Mr Harold L Lanning; Mr Leo Reid; Arthur Boggs; David Christie; Vivian Clareburt; Harry Walker; Norman Griffiths; Miss Janey Murphy; Miss Violet Dean and Miss Enid Dick. She also lists Mr John Dick as the person who appointed her to her position; Mr John Cushing as Acting Assistant Town Clerk and Mr Fred R Watters as being appointed to the position in January 1931.
Winifred writes of how the staff vacated the Borough Council building, and what she witnessed at the Masonic Hotel as she and a colleague made their way to their homes, through the business area of Hastings Street and along Marine Parade. Winifred and her colleague, Enid Dick, parted company in Raffles Street and Winifred made her way home through Sale Street and into Wellesley Road, where she found her mother had avoided injury from a neighbour's chimney which had fallen into their driveway.
Winifred's brother Jim was employed as a bank teller in the Bank of New South Wales in Hastings Street and survived by sheltering under a desk as the building collapsed. Her elder brother Ernest was a senior clerk at the Public Works Department office, a wooden building in Shakespeare Road.
She writes of there being no water, gas, electricity, sewerage but that tents had been found for people to sleep in. With the impending threat of disease, she tells of women and children being evacuated to a base at Waipukurau, established by the Salvation Army.
Winifred has not signed the letter but typed her name as Winifred J M McCutcheon, June 2001.
Maker
Production date
Jun 2001
Production period
Production technique
Media/Materials description
Typed on blank paper. Correction in blue ink.
Media/Materials
Measurements
Height x Width: 295 x 210mm
Classification terms
Subject person
Subject period
Subject date
03 Feb 1931
Other number(s)
73456
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