LIFE OF THE PARTY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30451, 27 May 1964, Page 18

LIFE OF THE PARTY

(N.Z. Preu Association) AUCKLAND, May 26. A sea voyage was recommended for 93-year-old Mr P. Fitzgerald, spending the eventide of his life quietly in Kent, when his daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs W. G. Kenyon, decided to emigrate to New Zealand. “They said it would give me a new lease of life,” said Mr Fitzgerald, a passenger in the Ruahine which berthed at Auckland this morning. This proved a mild understatement.

While fellow passengers wilted in the heat of the tropics, Mr Fitzgerald won first prize at the fancy dress ball as a jolly jack tar. dancing a vigorous hornpipe, and singing a couple of rousing songs.

He daneed and sang again at the ship’s concert

One of the first passengers out of bed and down to breakfast on the ship early this morning, Mr Fitzgerald said 30 years in the British Army was standing him in good stead.

He joined the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin as a band boy when he was 11. He served in several Far East and Middle East countries, was one of the first World War I combatants, and rose to the rank of drum-major with the Buffs.

Until he was 86, Mr Fitzgerald entertained, pensioners in Kent with his repertoire of dances and songs three times a week.

He will settle with Mr and Mrs Kenyon at Kawakawa.