AFTER 30 YEARS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4110, 9 March 1949, Page 8

AFTER 30 YEARS

VISIT TO WHITIANGA COUPLE FROM ENGLAND LINK WITH LIMPSFIELD On his way to New Zealand for the first time in 30 years is Mr John Roy Ferguson, who was born ' in Mercury Bay, where he still has several relatives living, including his sister, Mrs R. A. Simpson. Mr Ferguson is accompanied by his wife, who was born in Limpsfield, Surrey, and who is president of the Limpsfield Village Women’s Institute and vice-president of the Rotary Inner Wheel for wives of Rotarians. The Limpsfield Village Women’s Institute is linked with the Mercury Bay Women’s Institute, the latter having sent many food parcels to Limpsfield. Last year the English institute reciprocated by sending- a water colour of a village street, painted by a local artist, to the Mercury Bay institute as a token of appreciation. Mrs Ferguson hopes to further express this appreciation personally to Mercury Bay Women’s Institute members on her visit to New Zealand. Mr Ferguson served with the New Zealand forces in the 1914-18 war in France, where he was wounded in the face. He met his wife, who was a V.A.D. and a school teacher, in London, and they were married in 1919. Following their marriage, Mr Ferguson returned to New Zealand for demobilisation • and then rejoined his wife in Oxted, Surrey. Mr and Mrs Ferguson have two sons and two daughters living. Their eldest son, John, was in the R.A.F. and was killed during the last war in a plane crash. “An electrical engineer, Mr Ferguson has a flourishing radio business in Oxted,” writes Mr C. G. Gegg, a

journalist cn the “ Surrey Mirror,” and a friend of th? Ferguson family, who supplied the above information to the Gazette. ‘‘ Mr Ferguson is a wellknown amateur radio broadcaster using the call sign G6FS. He has been the Oxted member of the Godstone Rural District Council since 1939' and as chairman of the housing committee he is tackling with commendable success one of the greatest problems of our post-war world—the housing shortage,” writes Mr Gegg. “He is also past president(l944-45) of the Oxted and Limpsfield Rotary Club.”

Mr and Mrs Ferguson left England on the liner Empress of Canada on March 2 on their way to New Zealand for a six months trip. They are travelling across Canada and will leave Vancouver on the S.S. Aorangi on March 24.