Wartime service
Angus’s first job was in a drawing office with a heating and ventilation engineer in Kingsway, London, but after some eighteen months he decided to join the Royal Air Force. “This was accomplished by buying six months extra National Health Stamps to falsely increase my age, and after a medical at Regents Park Office, I was accepted for Air Crew training.”
After various postings in the UK, where Angus trained as a bomb- aimer, they were sent by ship to Canada and stationed at Portage La Prairie and Dauphin, Manitoba, for bomb practice, usually in light Anson twin engine aircraft. Angus finally graduated with Sergeant’s stripes. After returning to Europe he was posted to a Halifax (four engine bomber) squadron at Marston Moor, and later Tilstock, training with airborne troops and dropping guns and jeeps, and then sent to Egypt, Palestine and finally Iraq. They were attached to the Sixth Airborne Division, with whom they made “numerous trips and drops”.
After hostilities ended they made several flights through African territory, Cyprus, Italy and Greece. By then things were fairly stable, and he had the opportunity to join his brother Sonny In his grocery business — “so I relinquished my Flight Sergeant’s Crown, and obtained early civilian status in a sadly bomb-scarred London.”
Post-war
From notes left by Angus
After helping my brother Sonny in his grocery business for a couple of years, I was offered the opportunity to join a Fire Underwriting Company in Chancery Lane. I accepted and thoroughly enjoyed it, and was fortunate to meet my darling Rita after a few months. We became engaged at the end of 1949 and eventually married on 1st September 1951. We had a lovely flat on the ground floor of Rita’s Aunt Ellen’s house at Parkland Road, Streatham, South London. It was some eighteen months later that dear wee Alison was born, on 25 March 1953.
Overseas postings were becoming frequent, and the company offered me a transfer to Montreal as Underwriter in the Fire Department. Rita was keen for me to accept, which meant that we would have to travel by boat to take up the post. Not easy with a three month old baby whose mother was a very poor sailor. She spent the best part of the journey to Halifax in complete retirement, leaving baby care to the ship’s staff, as I wasn’t in the best of health either. We were glad to get back to land at Halifax, and then by train to Montreal.
I spent a successful three years Underwriting and was then offered a Broker’s position in Newfoundland at double my current salary, which we felt was too good to refuse. Rita was in Montreal pregnant for a second time and I in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, when the call came. I arranged travel from the hospital to Newfoundland so we could all to be together again after several weeks of separation. Neil Angus McGregor was born in Newfy on 17 July 1956, the children started school and pre-school in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, and business was good.
Two and a half years later I was offered the Fire Superintendent position in Toronto with Century Fire and Accident Insurance. It was a senior position that offered not only a good salary but the prospect of future promotion elsewhere in their worldwide organisation. We drove by car through the Eastern Provinces, arriving in Toronto just prior to Christmas, and were fortunate to spend Christmas 1958 with Sonny, Joyce and their two children, James and Heather.
Sonny died three years later. Heather would describe Angus as her surrogate father.
We were in that position for five good years. Ellen Margaret decided to emerge on 14 July 1961. We were living then in a house we’d bought on Main Street in Brampton, outside Toronto, together with Rita’s widowed Aunt Ellen Whitting, whose flat in Streatham had been our first home. All was going well, although Neil developed serious problems each year with pine pollination, resulting in shocking loss of weight, and causing both him — and Rita especially — sleep deprivation amongst other problems.
At that point the U.K. chief of personnel was in Toronto, and mentioned that a senior position was coming available in New Zealand — offering me the opportunity to move if the family agreed to that proposition. As usual Rita did agree, and we organised a good sale of the Canadian home. The company organised flights for the family ahead of my own, as I had to find a suitable and capable replacement before I could move on. That was finally achieved in October 1963, some three months after Rita had settled in Auckland and purchased a house there.
No sooner had I arrived than Toronto advised me that Head office was to be transferred from Auckland to Wellington, and a further adjustment had to be made for the whole family, and also to accommodate Rita’s Aunt Ellen, who was now living permanently with us, in the separate little flat that we always provided.
We found a solid place at Paraparaumu on the Coast, some fifteen miles from the office in Wellington, and were there for two years before moving into Wellington City and settling in Sefton Street, where in (some) spare time I was able to provide the children with ponies and purchase a large piece of land at Haywards Hill in Hutt Valley. At that time Rita fell pregnant with Bruce — who we both confess was a pleasant surprise to all.
After several months, the thought came to Rita and me that we should take matters into our own hands and build a house and adjoining flat, so that our lifestyle was sensible, practical and economical. We arranged a plan with council, bulldosed a large area at Haywards Hill and organised a builder to erect a large four bedroom two storey home with a nice flat on the ground floor for Aunt Ellen.
We thoroughly enjoyed the lifestyle, and, with the ponies handy, Alison and Neil both learned to ride well, with Neil extremely competitive and successful. We subdivided a section of eleven acres, which we sold immediately. That left the house and thirty acres in our possession, and life was generally good.
I had a great time revitalising the Company’s affairs and appointing new Agencies, which through the years enabled me to get the Company into a profit situation. But then the company advised that London Head Office was selling off the Fire and Accident business world-wide to another British organisation. I saw no future with the purchasers, and after some deliberation decided to go out on my own as a sole insurance assessor. We moved from windy Wellington to the warmer climate of Auckland, which suited the whole family, so once again fortune favoured us all. Sale of the Wellington property in 1978, the same year that Auntie sadly died, brought a very healthy profit, and I operated from our new house at Balmain Road for some ten years.
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Angus skips a bit there. That “deliberation” included Angus, Rita and the two youngest children, Ellen and Bruce, returning to the U.K. for a while. It was not a success, and the decision was then made to move up to Auckland. The family rented properties in Mission Bay and on Makoia Road before buying on Balmain Road. Meanwhile Auntie Ellen had needed to be placed into care with dementia, and couldn’t be moved without disrupting her life, meaning that contact with her was lost to an extent. And come to think of it, there are 20-odd years to account for here, not ten. ~ Ian
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When I decided to retire, we discussed it with family, and Neil suggested that we build a really nice one-level arrangement on his and Ruth’s land at Waiau Pa, South Auckland. Rita thought this would be good for her, as she was developing Parkinson problems, so a suitable builder rapidly completed the new place for us and we moved into this delightful, easily operated home in December 2004.
Rita and I enjoyed our delightful new home for four lovely years until severe, unsuspected bowel cancer caused my darling girl’s death in October 2008.
There will never be another like her — ever. I am left with such wonderful memories and can’t say more.