Century celebrated

Press, 28 November 1987, Page 3

Century celebrated

NIGEL MALTHUS

By 1

Born when Queen Vic-

toria still had 14 years to reign, Mrs Willlamina Hodgkinson, of Rangiora, has outlived another four monarchs and seems well-qualified to pass judgment on the present Queen. A staunch royalist and proud of it, Mrs Hodgkinson is 100 years old today and eagerly awaiting the traditional congratulatory telegram from Queen Elizabeth IL “She’s a good little Queen. They (The Queen and Prince Philip) are a good pair — solid,” said Mrs Hodgkinson, in a voice which still clearly proclaims her Scottish origins. She was born in Kilmarnock, the youngest daughter in a family of seven girls and two boys. . She trained as a Red Cross nurse and volunteered to serve in a convalescent hospital for the

troops, in Kilmarnock, in World War I. There she met a New Zealander, Harold Hodgkinson, and married him at the war’s end, sailing for New Zealand in 1920. That was a trio she remembers well —

through the Panama Canal, with a ship-load of other war brides, off to a new life with their colonial husbands. A true Scot, Mrs Hodgkinson is partial to a wee dram, but did not get a drop of the bottle of Johnny Walker given to her as a going-away present by her family. It was used for medicinal purposes as she nursed her sea-sick companions, “cot cases, some of them,” she said.

There were surprises in store in New Zealand. Not least the railway tracks, which she thought dangerously narrow compared with the broad gauges of Britain,

particularly on the trip through the Cromwell Gorge to their new home at Hawea.

At Hawea, they lived for a year in a tent, albeit one with a wooden floor, while their house was built

The nurse-turned-farmer’s-wife had to learn new skills, such as milking cbws, making butter, and baking bread. they retired to Ranigora in 1954, when the Government bought the farm to flood much of it with the raising of Lake Hawea.

Mr Hodgkinson died in 1972, aged in his 90s. Mrs Hodgkinson moved out of their house only in February this year, and now lives at rest home in Rangiora. She attributed her long life to putting God first, maintaining peace of mind, and keeping busy and happy in what she has to do.