DIAMOND WEDDING

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29220, 2 June 1960, Page 2

DIAMOND WEDDING

Mr And Mrs Charles Sealey

The diamond wedding of Mr and Mrs Charles Sealey, of 26 Ward street, Addington, will be celebrated on Saturday at a quiet family gathering. Mr Sealey came to New Zealand with his wife in 1911, and was for some years nurseryman at the Deans estate at Waddington, in Mid-Canterbury.

Sprightly for his 85 years, Mr Sealey is still a keen gardener, and often works many hours a day at this hobby. He is an ardent soccer enthusiast, and still watches cricket at Lancaster Park.

At an early age, Mr Sealey was apprenticed to a butcher, and will still talk of the low wages he received at that time. Later, he and his brothers worked with their father in a coal mine. About 20 years ago Mr Sealey wrote a small volume entitled “The Life Of A Miner," in which he described his 20 years at the mine. Unfortunately, this booklet has been lost from the family records. On June 4,1900, Mr Sealey married a Yorkshire woman—he himself was from Derbyshire. Mrs Sealey is now aged 80. Eleven years later they came to New Zealand, and after working for a few years as a gardener, Mr Sealey entered the Railways Department. Until his retirement he worked as a rail layer, mainly on the Arthur's Pass line.

Mr and Mrs Sealey have four surviving children —one daughter died three years ago. They are Mrs F. Snowden, of Christchurch, Mrs Allan Brown, of Kaituna Valley, and Messrs Charles and Peter Sealey, both of Christchurch.