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George Stanley Chisholm George
Stanley Chisholm born 5th Jul 1873 at Wellington, the 8th child of Joseph
and Elizabeth Chisholm. The family lived in Hopper Street before moving
north to a farm at Mosston, Wanganui where Stan attended the Mosston
School from May 1879 till April 1882.
They
returned to Wellington - Stan was first enrolled a Wesleyan Day
school and 1884, progressed to Mt. Cook Boys for the next 5 years and
having completed Std 7, he left aged 15 yrs.
Chisholm family life
centred round the Taranaki Street Wesleyan Church. Stan played both hockey
and cricket for his Church teams and took a keen interest in Church's
Youth Activities and later worked with Bible Class instruction. And this
led to his being President of the Wellington Young Men's Bible Class
Union.
Stan
married 18 Aug 1908 at the Presbyterian Church, Lawrence. His bride,
Amy Sarah Clark, was an academically gifted girl who, in 1896, earned a
scholarship from Otaki Primary School to attend Wellington Girls College
for two years. After finishing College, Amy gained an apprenticeship with
a lady pharmacist on Lambton Quay. To enter a profession such as pharmacy
was a most unusual step for a woman at the end of the 19th century - Amy
was the only female in her pharmacy class, which she attended concurrently
while serving her apprenticeship. She qualified in 1904 and later moved to
Nelson, where she was the Dispenser for two Nelson doctors, the Drs.
Gibbs, before returning to Lawrence where her parents were living, four
months before marrying Stan in 1908. Stan had
bought a section in Derwent Road at Island Bay and built his home for
Amy. Their house was a large kauri villa, and was by the standards of the
day, a substantial one and the Chisholms lived there for almost twenty
years. Their three children, Joyce (1909), Alan (1911) and Bob (1914) were
all born and spent their childhood at Island Bay, going to the local
Island Bay Primary School along the Parade from where they lived. Joyce
wrote of the very happy and secure childhood they had there. Amy, their
mother was considered an excellent homemaker, keeping the house interior
immaculate, tending a lovely flower garden in the front and a garden full
of vegetables at the back and also kept hens. Each week a lady came in to
boil the clothes in the copper in the morning and in the afternoon do the
house cleaning. Four times a year, a dressmaker arrived to make the
season's clothes. Stan joined the tennis and bowling clubs and they all
attended the local Presbyterian Church. With just a line of sand hills
between them and the sea, there were adventures a plenty for the children
and their dog, Pickles and a place in the washhouse out the back for their
sandy shoes when they came home.
Stan readily found
employment at fire insurance despite having no formal qualifications and
became an accountant and land agent. The economic situation deteriorated
in the 1920s, and this saw Stan unsuccessfully try running a Motor
Repair business and became bankrupt in 1928. In an effort to restore
family finances, Amy opened a pharmacy in Rona Bay with the funding
help of Sharland & Co but Stan's chauvinistic attitude led
to friction in the home. He rigidly opposed the role change despite
the reality of the situation, believing it was man's place to support the
family - Amy's place was in the home. Nect, the
opportunity arose for Stan to buy a Movie Theatre business -
talking pictures had just arrived. Again, his judgement was wrong at a
crucial time with the country plunging into a deep economic depression.
Something new like the talking movies was just too expensive for the
ordinary citizen so the business didn't survive. Joyce and
Alan by now had left school. The couple agreed if they were to
stay together, they should live back in town, so Amy bought a shop in
Upland Road, Kelburn and moved to Raroa Road.
Following World War
2, Stan returned to his first interest, insurance but at
age sixty, Stan was too old for Government Relief work, so was
left sitting unoccupied and unhappy around the home and Amy with her
pharmacy continued supporting the family. Their relationship finally
reached breaking point, and with Joyce married and Bob away from home,
Stan and Amy officially separated. Amy bought and moved into a house in
Glen Road, where she lived till almost the end of her days. She kept her
pharmacy for a few years and in 1952, thinking of five growing
grandchildren, she invested her savings in a beach bach at Waikanae for
her family's use something appreciated by her descendants. Estranged from Amy, Stan lived alone in a series of flats
for the rest of his life making Sunday visits to family. He returned to
working in the insurance field, and ironically did very well - when
well into his eighties he could still be seen walking the streets to see
his insurance clients and often stopping to socialise with them. Stan, become very deaf in his old age and when just on 94 he
was knocked over by a car. The accident left his pelvis and hip joints out
of balance and left him and unable to enjoy the activity which had meant
so much to him over his last years - walking.
He had to go into care in the Brentwood Private Hospital in
Karori where he lived for the last six years of his life. The Hospital
turned on a celebration when Stan turned one hundred - the Queen
sent a telegram and the Dominion reported on the event. Mentally still
alert, he was mostly confined to his bed and died three weeks later. Amy,
the mother of his children, in her last years had contracted Altzheimer's
Disease and had died two years previously in the Elizabeth Memorial Home
in Wellington. CHISHOLM, George Stanley, aged 100 years, on July 26, 1973, at Brentwood Hospital. Loved father of Joyce (Mrs. T.W. Ross), Alan and the late Bob.
A service will be held in Wesley Church, Taranaki Street at 4 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) and thereafter to the Crematorium Chapel, Karori. (Condensed - memories by Stan and Amy's daughter Joyce) Images and
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