Personal narrative, Valda Marie Colwill
Maker
Colwill, Valda Marie
Object detail
Brief Description
Memories of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake by Valda Marie Colwill nee Tong, who writes that she is 85 years old and was 15 at the time of the earthquake.
Valda was a boarder at Napier Girls' High School, but had not returned to school, as they had been away at the beach and were late getting back into town. She and her mother were shopping in Westerman's in Hastings when the earthquake struck. Valda was being served by Mavis Faulkner, a friend from primary school. When the earthquake struck, Mavis ran for the door and was badly injured in one leg. Valda writes that Mavis had to live with the injury for the remainder of her life.
Valda's mother led her out of the building and they headed for home where they were fortunate that little damage had occurred. Valda's father was from a well known family who were the local undertakers (Tong), and her brother was a volunteer fireman. She writes that they were fully occupied and the family saw little of them.
She writes that they had two tents on their lawn, one of which was used for storing empty coffins. Fire was threatening the business and coffins were in short supply and needed to be moved. She writes that the town premises possessed an artesian well which was fully utilised by the fire service as their water supply. At the time of writing, Valda says that the premises were on the site of the Hawke's Bay Today newspaper.
Printed at the top of the page is a copy of a notice titled: Calling all 1931 quake survivors. The notice asks for survivors to provide their name, address, age and whereabouts at the time of the 1931 earthquake, and current age and address and to send the details to the Hawke's Bay Cultural Trust.
Valda was a boarder at Napier Girls' High School, but had not returned to school, as they had been away at the beach and were late getting back into town. She and her mother were shopping in Westerman's in Hastings when the earthquake struck. Valda was being served by Mavis Faulkner, a friend from primary school. When the earthquake struck, Mavis ran for the door and was badly injured in one leg. Valda writes that Mavis had to live with the injury for the remainder of her life.
Valda's mother led her out of the building and they headed for home where they were fortunate that little damage had occurred. Valda's father was from a well known family who were the local undertakers (Tong), and her brother was a volunteer fireman. She writes that they were fully occupied and the family saw little of them.
She writes that they had two tents on their lawn, one of which was used for storing empty coffins. Fire was threatening the business and coffins were in short supply and needed to be moved. She writes that the town premises possessed an artesian well which was fully utilised by the fire service as their water supply. At the time of writing, Valda says that the premises were on the site of the Hawke's Bay Today newspaper.
Printed at the top of the page is a copy of a notice titled: Calling all 1931 quake survivors. The notice asks for survivors to provide their name, address, age and whereabouts at the time of the 1931 earthquake, and current age and address and to send the details to the Hawke's Bay Cultural Trust.
Production place
Production period
Media/Materials description
Printed in black ink on blank paper.
Media/Materials
Measurements
Height x Width: 295 x 210mm
Classification terms
Subject person
Subject period
Subject date
03 Feb 1931
Other number(s)
73523
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