Tribute to Mrs. R. Blackford

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 6

Tribute to Mrs. R. Blackford

Writing from the Middle East to the Patriotic Fund Board’s bulletin, Lieuten-ant-Colonel F. Waite pays a tribute to the New Zealand hospital visitor, Mrs. R. Blackford. "Not only does Mrs. Blackford bring the men cigarettes, sweets and papers, but she shops for them in Cairo and writes to their people in New Zealand. If the mothers of New Zealanders knew the value of Mrs. Blackford’s work, they would be eternally grateful,” he states. Mrs. Blackford was formerly Miss Olive Strachey, of Christchurch.

Miss Charlotte Kemp, a granddaughter of James Kemp who, with Rev. J. G. Butler, established the Church Missionary Society’s station at Kerikeri in ISI9, died recently in the Kawakawa Hospital at the age of S 3. One of a family of eight, she was born at Kerikeri and resided there all her life. After the death of her parents she and her sister Gertrude continued to live at Kerikeri in the oldest wooden house in New Zealand. Miss Kemp was a keen gardener and took a. great interest in Church work throughout her life. She and her sister were constant attenders at the little Kerikeri Church, the records of which they kept faithfully for more than half a century. So many people from all over the world

called at the historic house that the Misses Kemp started a visitors’ book. Miss Gertrude Kemp is the sole survivor of the family.