The Life of George Francis Lissington

#Note: I have accidentally published this in my other page on my travels. The blog was meant for this page. This blog will be updated as I find information

Update 12/10/2019

There are times when we miss writing about our great grandparents regardless of how much information you have about them in the middle of their lives. George Francis Lissington is one such person. I have slowly collected information about him over time and have used several sources of information from old newspapers on Paperspast, archival records from the National Archives in New Zealand, and other records including the electoral rolls from Ancestry to track his movements. Over time there will be more information that I can use and gather about him.

George Francis Lissington was born in Feilding on the 18^th September 1900 to James Alfred and Catherine Lissington, nee Hitchman. He was the third of 7 children born between the New Zealand towns of Feilding and Palmerston North. He could have gone to school in Wellington, but I think I was looking at a cousin who attended the Wellington school especially in Karori where a Lissington was on the school board there and also on the Karori Borough Council before it amalgamated with Wellington. I don’t know much at all about his younger days before he married and there seems to be very little in the newspapers. George Lissington married Hazel Milverton in Palmerston North in June 23^rd, 1926. They would go onto honeymoon in New Plymouth.[1] The Milverton family were well known in Palmerston North as Hazel’s father Percival Amos Milverton was superintendent of the Palmerston North Fire Brigade, when George and Hazel were married. I don’t know how they would have met, but they were living in the same township and it would have been a small town in the early 1900s.

They would have their first child in August 1927, Nola Lissington in Palmerston North, followed by George in October 1930 and Peggy Lissington in September 1933 in Parparoa. The New Zealand electoral register has the family located 39 Alma road, Wanganui and George’s occupation as a milk vendor in 1928. An interview in the Northern Advocate newspaper in 1976 said the business was dairy produce wholesale business.[2] There is a story from Peggy in 2016, that George Lissington helped out during the 1931 earthquake in Napier by ferrying people out of the earthquake zone. Between 1935 and 1954, according to the electoral roll, George Lissington and family lived in Huarau located between Paparoa and Maungaturoto. The towns are in what is now known as Northland, located north of Auckland. According to Peggy, George cleared the land himself to be used as a farm and over the years between the birth of the children and early 1941, two houses had been built. The first house had no roof when George was born in 1930. The family stayed in a tent until the roof was put on as George himself built it. They had an outside toilet known as an outhouse. Food and meat would be delivered to their mailbox. The building that replaced the first house was completed not long before young George passed away. The new house meant they would have power connected and an inside toilet. The old house was used for storage and a laundry. 

Around 1936, George was a committee member of the Paparoa School, where he resigned as his children were now going to the school at Maunguroto.[3] Young George had appeared several times including Nola in the newspapers looking for pen friends. The young boy, George passed away in 1941 from a coughing fit as he had whooping cough. A blood vessel had burst and he had haemophilia. George was buried in St Mark’s Cemetery in Paparoa. According to the news article the family were highly respected in the area[4] The grave is still there in the cemetery at the St Mark’s Anglican Church.

George had been called up in the ballot for world war 2 for their service from 1942.[5] Since New Zealand had conscription throughout World War 2, George had to face the military board to explain why he had not joined the army as his age group had been called up by ballot. George was able to avoid the scrutiny as he joined the Home Guard in 1943, even though he was a farmer.[6] One story from during the war was of three American soldiers on leave, whose vehicle broke down outside the farm gate of the farm who were on leave from either Warkworth or Wellsford on their way to Dargaville. They approached the house in the morning and was able to let the camp know they were not AWOL. Nola worked for the telephone exchange at the time, so could have been the one who put them through to whoever was in charge. The soldiers would become frequent visitors to the farm when on leave.

Around 1950 George was looking at selling the property in Maungatoroto, but for some reason the sale fell through. I do not know if George and family were still staying on the farm while they were trying to sell the property or as per Peggy’s recollections, they had moved out in late 1949. The Archive record does include, George had bought the property in May 1932 for £1550 and was intending to sell it for £3985 as he had improved the property, which would have been the clearing and the buildings. The property included a Dwelling, cowshed, piggeries, garage and cottage. The farm was classed as a Dairy farm and includes 40 cows and 250 sheep. The size of land owned by George Lissington was 190 acres and 11 perches in the parish of Paparoa. The first sale fell through for some reason, but that did not stop George from trying again less than a month later.[7]

Within a month of the failed sale of the farm in 1950, George tried to lease the land to another company and the records include the reason why he was wanting to lease the land. Due to the ill health of his wife, he was required to vacate the land immediately and take up employment elsewhere. Peggy has written that the reason for Hazel’s illness was from the death of George in 1940 as she had never gotten over it. This document includes a list of stock, plant and implement within the farm. The consent was also withdrawn, which it makes two within a period of months in 1950.[8] I do not have any further information about the farm being sold unless I try and get hold of the land records, but at least for now I have a list of what was actually on the farm.

70 milking cows, 5 yearling cows, 15 calves, 5 pigs, 1 boar, 10 store pigs, 26 weaner pigs

Plant and implements

3 cow milking plant G.B.B. with electric motor shafting and belting.

1 lister separator 80 gallon

1 hot water cylinder

1 skim milk pump

1 water pump – McL Wallace with electric motor and piping

1 tractor

1 mower for tractor

1 hay sweeper

1 top dresser

1 trailer

1 plough

1 set harrows, posts and timber

George and family appear again in 1954 within the electoral roll as living in Weaver street in Whangarei and was listed as a contractor. It would mean the farm was sold between 1950 and 1954, where they moved to Whangarei. He did end up at another farm in Tutamoe, which is recorded in the 1957 electoral roll. The farm was a mix of dairy and sheep and lived until George became ill with cancer, which was successfully treated through an operation. They moved back to Whangarei where George would work for a bakery by the name of Davidson’s, packaging up the bread at night before he retired. The bakery was located in Kamo. George and Hazel would live in Dundonald road for a number of years until moving to McMillian Avenue, where the electoral roll picked them up again in 1978. Stories from the past that I have been told about and including within an article about their lives confirm their love for travel as members of a motor caravan group.[9] George passed away from a heart attack in April of 1979 and is buried in Maunu cemetery in Whangarei.

Sources

Land valuation - George Francis Lissington, to Douglas Alfred Williams, New Zealand National Archives file

Land valuation - George Francis Lissington to George Francis Lissington agent of Hillcrest farms limited, 1950, New Zealand National Archives file

New Zealand Electoral rolls, 1853 – 1981, Ancestry website

Granny’s Life – short memoir, unpublished

Untitled, ‘Wedding, Lissington – Milverton’, Manawatu Standard, 26 June 1926, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19260626.2.128, accessed 24/09/2019.

Untitled, ‘In love with Northland’, Northern Advocate, 29 June 1976.

Untitled, ‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 7 August 1936, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19360807.2.88, accessed 24/09/2019.

‘Untitled, ‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 3 September 1941,

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19410903.2.4, accessed 24/09/2019.

Unknown, ‘Additional cases before appeal board’, Northern Advocate, 13 May 1943,

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19430513.2.64, accessed 24/09/2019.

Unknown, ‘Men in today’s Ballot not to act  precipitatley’, Northern Advocate, 23 December 1942, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19421223.2.58, accessed 24/09/2019.

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[1] Untitled, ‘Wedding, Lissington – Milverton’, Manawatu Standard, 26 June 1926, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19260626.2.128, accessed 24/09/2019.

[2] Untitled, ‘In love with Northland’, Northern Advocate, 29 June 1976.

[3] Untitled, ‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 7 August 1936, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19360807.2.88, accessed 24/09/2019.

[4] ‘Untitled, ‘Paparoa’, Northern Advocate, 3 September 1941,

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19410903.2.4, accessed 24/09/2019.

[5] Unknown, ‘Men in today’s Ballot not to act  precipitatley’, Northern Advocate, 23 December 1942, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19421223.2.58, accessed 24/09/2019.

[6] Unknown, ‘Additional cases before appeal board’, Northern Advocate, 13 May 1943

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19430513.2.64, accessed 24/09/2019.

[7] Land valuation between George Francis Lissington and Alfred Williams, 1950

[8] Land valuation, George Francis Lissington to George Francis Lissington, 1950

[9] Untitled, ‘In love with Northland’, Northern Advocate, 29 June 1976.