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A 10 Pound Pom who didn’t like ‘flowery language’

Richard Swainson

In the parlance of the day, they were ‘‘10 Pound Poms’’. The formal name for the subsidy in which British citizens were encouraged to migrate to Australia and New Zealand in the post-war period was the ‘‘Assisted Passage Migration Scheme’’.

When New Zealand, following its neighbour’s lead, adopted the scheme in July of 1946, a 23-year-old farm worker hailing from Tynemouth, England, took up the challenge. Joan Culley felt her employment chances were slim. A cheap passage to the other side of the world and guaranteed work for the following two years seemed like a good deal.

An adventure, perhaps. She boarded the RMS Rangitata, amongst the first batch of British immigrants.

The Rangitata docked over Labour Day weekend. As ‘‘nothing was open’’ on a public holiday, Joan and her fellow passengers were forced to remain on ship. It was a less than an auspicious arrival. The adventure was postponed.

Joan Oates would ultimately have many adventures in her adopted country, making a contribution to post-war New Zealand as a psychiatric nurse, a farm worker, a wife and a mother. A people person, sociable, loyal and fiercely independent, her life spanned seven months short of a century. With a healthy sense of humour, she was community minded, active in the Women’s Division Federated Farmers. She played bowls for 45 years.

Joan Emily Culley was born July 13, 1923 in Tynemouth, England, the second child of Robert John Culley and Florence Ellen Culley (nee Tingay).

She had an older brother, John and a younger sister, Olive. Robert worked as a policeman.

In 1926, tragedy struck the family, with Robert’s unexpected death from pneumonia, contracted whilst working in cold, wet conditions. Under the circumstances, Florence struggled to look after both herself and her three children. Joan, John and Olive were put into state care.

In 1930, Florence married Fred Pocock and had another child, Joan’s half-sister, Sheila. The family reunited.

Joan left school early, working in a variety of odd jobs until she was of an age to join the Women’s Land Army, an organisation that had been established in July 1939, in anticipation of rural labour needs during the forthcoming war. Joan lived on the site of her host farm.

Joan often described the war period as ‘‘one of the most fun times of her life’’. The arrival of American servicemen, more polite, attentive and well-heeled than many a local chap, opened up fresh social experiences. Whenever the military personnel of the United States of America visited Joan’s farm, looking for dance partners, she considered her options. Gifts of chocolate or stockings were considerable inducements in a time of strict rationing. Joan shared the spoils with the farmer’s wife.

It was not, obviously, all fun and games. Air raids were a fact of life. One morning, en route to milking the cows, Joan found a huge crater in the farm yard, courtesy of the Luftwaffe. On another occasion, arriving in London via train with a friend, planning to go ice skating, she was met by a man in uniform who declared, ‘‘no, you are going to join the line to clear bricks from a bombed building’’. As Joan said, ‘‘you didn’t question, you got on with the job at hand, doing what you had to do’’.

It was post-war unemployment that motivated Joan’s decision to emigrate to New Zealand. When finally she could disembark from RMS Rangitata she went directly into training as a psychiatric nurse. The Assisted Passage Migration Scheme was a form of indentured labour.

As Joan had applied and was listed as ‘‘nurse’’ she was required to work as such for two years or refund the cost of her passage.

Once qualified, Joan was employed at Tokanui Hospital, living on site in the nurse’s hostel. The Tokanui grounds backed onto the Oates family farm. Joan met Charlie Oates, a World War II veteran, 13 years her senior, at a local dance. Romance ensued.

Joan and Charlie married in 1948. Their first three children were born whilst they lived on Charlie’s parents’ farm.

As a returned serviceman, Charlie was eligible for a ballot farm. Eventually, one was secured in Waiari Rd, Paterangi. A dairy farm, Charlie and Joan also kept pigs.

Joan and Charlie had the last two of their five offspring whilst living on their own farm. They had no electricity until the early 1960s. A coal-range was used for cooking and heating water whilst a diesel engine powered the cowshed.

By both nature and necessity, Joan was what her daughter Wendy calls a ‘‘busy mother’’. Helping on the farm as well as running the house, raising five children – not least of which involved ferrying them back and forth to various sporting events – she was a skilled knitter and sewer who kept the cake tins full. Her ‘‘no-nonsense’’ demeanour did not countenance what she called ‘‘flowery language’’.

Enjoying the companionship of her own sex, Joan joined the local Women’s Division Federated Farmers. She held several positions on its committee over her years of involvement.

Joan and Charlie both joined the Pirongia Bowling Club. A competitive bowler who won many a trophy, in Joan’s 45 years of active involvement with the club she held sundry positions on its governing committee, including serving as patron until her dying day. She mentored and coached countless emerging bowlers. Joan also played at the Te Awamutu Bowling Club.

In 1973, the farm was sold and Joan and Charlie moved into a red brick house in Fraser St, Te Awamutu, one which reminded Joan of her native England. Valuing her financial independence, Joan was glad of the opportunity to resume work at Tokanui, earning her own spending money.

She financed a first trip back to England in 1976 and enjoyed a more extended stay a decade later, nursing a sick aunt.

Joan was visiting her daughter and son-in-law in Norfolk Island when Charlie died suddenly in 1981. She continued working at

Tokanui until 1983, when forced into retirement at age 60, an inflexible law of the day for which she had little respect.

In 1990 Joan downsized to a house in Young St. At age 90, after suffering a heart attack, she received a heart valve replacement, one with an estimated expiry date of four years. It was to serve her for almost a decade. Joan enjoyed playing card and board games, often gracing the Mangapiko Hall and the Te Awamatu RSA. Well into her 90s, she did word puzzles and newspaper crosswords daily to keep her mind active and retained an interest in British politics and the day-to-day affairs of her native land.

With the assistance of visiting carers Joan was able to remain in her own home until almost the end of her life. A series of strokes in 2022 saw her reluctantly go into a care facility, where the staff’s habit of addressing her as ‘‘dear’’ or ‘‘sweetheart’’ was decidedly not appreciated. In her 100th year, Joan continued to resist ‘‘flowery language’’, preferring to be called by her own name.

As an immigrant, Joan never quite understood the New Zealand sense of humour – or ‘‘lack of humour’’ as she was prone to say – and was sensitive to the ways in which females were often slighted in this country. Coming from a land with a well-developed pub culture, social pressures in New Zealand which dissuaded women from frequenting public houses were thought odd, if not prejudicial. Missing England, never quite acclimatising to the hot antipodean summers, Joan remained a ‘‘stoic Brit’’ until the end.

Joan Emily Oates died December 20, 2022. She is survived by her children Wendy, Brenda, Stephen and Jill, their partners Wayne, Leonie and Kevin, 17 grandchildren and many greatgrandchildren.

Obituaries

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2023-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

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