TWINS AGED 85

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23425, 15 August 1939, Page 6

TWINS AGED 85

FIFTY -.TEAKS APAET, ' v SUFFOLK TO MOUNT- EDEN BIRTHQAY MEMORIES Puck of Pooks Hill might have been biding under the guava bushes in a Mount Eden garden the other day when Mr. Edmund Ilnynham Boldero admit. * ted in somewhat casual fashion that ho was the man mentioned in a Londondaily of July 17. The..."story," which came from Jpswich,!fsaid that a grey. ' haired farmer in the village of Ho r . ringer had drunk a silent toast to his twin brother in New Zealand on the occasion of their 85th birthday. ~ These twins have been separated f or 50 years, but there is a living Jj n u"' . between them. The Suffolk farmer and the Mount Eden resident maintain a close association by letter. Actually they use the air mail now. ' - Long-lived Family The Boldero twins are not the oldest of the five surviving members, of their' family of 16. Mrs. Isabella Coleman of Morton Morrcll, is 95. Mr. Henry Francis Boldero, a retired engineer of JRoyston, is 86. The youngest, Mr. Albert John Boldero, of Ipswich, is 82 The twins at school were inseparable except when Edmund "made" the first eleven of Framlingham College. They' were so alike that in their earlier davs' one wore on his arm a blue ribbon and the other a ribbon of red. Incidentally, Mr. Edmund is invited each year to the reunion of the Framlinghain old boys. The London newspaper suggested that ■ the Boldero twins were probably one of the oldest in the Empire. Jlr. Edmund, who was found tidying up a very nice garden lyitli lots of little" shrub fences, said that that might be so, but, as becomes a man whose family roots have gone broad and deep into Suffolk soil many centuries ago saw nothing remarkable in that possible fact. Living Alone lor Five Years The son of a clergyman, the grandson of a clergyman and the great-grandson of a clergyman, all of whom were Cambridge men, Mr. Edmund Boldero came to New Zealand 50 years ago after some financial crisis when his father died. He had been running a farm of 300 acres. "I had to ,get off somewhere," he said, "so I came to New Zealand to join a brother who had a farm at Mangawai. Later I had a ~ farmlet at Hamilton and eventually 1 came here." Five years ago his wife died, and since then Mr. Boklero has lived alone. For company lie has a small dog whicb } is shut up in a shed if it persists in 4 barking more than 10 minutes. Occa. sionally nieces visit him. "I have kind neighbours," he remarked, "and no enemies that I know of." Clergymen in the Family "Yes," he said, "my fanlily is overrun' with clergymen. The last three generations were clergymen. My youngest brother, his son and his son • are m the cloth, and I have five nephews who are parsons. I have been a lay reader.

"I hare never been ill and hare had a doctor only once for some trifle,! pi hare had an open-air life and am convinced that farming is the best occupation. Yes, I can cook, but my friends are always kind. Naturally in New Zealand I learned a lot, but, as a matter of fact, I had my best lessons .in cooking at the old vicarage in Drinkstone, near Bury St. Edmunds, where my brothers and I shot sparrows of an evening and with the help of my sister, who married a parson by the way, made sparrow pie. That can be an extremely good dish." Games. Yes, Mr. Boldero played cricket, "the best of all games if it is played." More on the point he would not say. Ancient Records The London newspaper stated the Boldero family could trace its ancestry back to 1400, that the village church is full of effigies of bygone Bolderos, who for centuries were the biggest landowners in the district, and that three Bolderos were colonels at Waterloo. ~ »;1j "It may be so about the colonels—l do not know," said Mr. Edmund, who > would be no more concerned if he were told that an ancestor drew a _ bow at Aginconrt. "From the 'Bold' it might . seem that we are of Saxon descent," lie said. "We put the emphasis upon the 'Bold.' However, our family motto which is surmounted by a greyhound, is 'Audax Ero —I Will be Bold.' " None can say whether the name Boldero was in existence before the motto, which raises a very interesting point upon which* Puck, if he would only speak, might offer some interesting observations. When Mr. Boldero was a boy what now goes for cultured English had not spread its dull uniformity over the land. There is a pleasant touch or country accent in his voice which recalls the remark of Earl Baldwin thai wlieii he first entered the House of Commons the counties of the members or all parties were still largely indicated by accent. , "No, I have no wish to see England again." said Mr. Boldero. "England has changed so much in 50 years, s