Joseph William THOMAS was born in 1879 at Wainui on the Bank’s Peninsula, New Zealand.
His parents were John Woodill THOMAS and Elizabeth Ann BATES. Both of his parents were children of first generation settlers to New Zealand.
John Woodill THOMAS (Joe’s father) was born around 1857 at North Dalton, Yorkshire, England. He was baptised there on 2 May 1857. It was noted that he was unwell in the church register. His brother, also named John THOMAS who was the first born had died. John Woodill THOMAS who was known as Jack or Jock is said to have had a sickly childhood in Yorkshire, England.
The THOMAS family left England on 17 May 1863 and arrived in New Zealand on 5 September 1863 on ‘The Captain Cook’. The ship was built in Quebec in 1854. It was 195 feet long, 37 feet wide and 22.5 feet deep. Three infants on ‘The Captain Cook’ arrived with both parents dead, five whose mothers were dead and two instances where fathers were considered too young and unfit to take charge of babies. There were 11 deaths on the voyage and the ship was placed in quarantine on arrival in New Zealand as many of the people were sick with Typhoid symptoms. An improvement of the onboard female hospital was noted but it was still not big enough to accomodate those who were sick. The upper deck had leaked through leaving nowhere dry.
The ship had been caught by heavy gales, one which developed into a hurricane leaving the ship quite damaged. Icebergs were also encountered. The passengers spoke highly of the kindness of Captain Cleaver and his Chief Officer.
Joseph’s father, John Woodill THOMAS was only a small boy when the family arrived in New Zealand. They moved into a house at Grehan Road, Haylock’s Valley, Akaroa. The house was provided by John WOODILL THOMASs brother-in-law John WOODILL who was his mother’s brother who was Joseph’s uncle.
Joseph’s mother Elizabeth Ann BATES was born on 11 November 1856 at St Helen’s, Lancashire, England. Her large family spent some time there after leaving Donegal in Ireland. Her family had emigrated to New Zealand on the ship ‘Indiana’ which had left London 2 August 1858. Her family were helped out a lot by her Uncle who was a mining engineer at St Helen’s, Lancashire. This uncle had no children.
Joseph’s parents, John Woodill THOMAS and Elizabeth Ann BATES met in New Zealand, at Akaroa on the Bank’s Peninsula. They were married on 12 November 1877 at Akaroa. Elizabeth was listed as a Millina on the marriage certificate.
Joseph William THOMAS was the eldest child of John Woodill THOMAS and Elizabeth Ann BATES followed by John Harrold THOMAS on 3 August 1880. Only a year later, Joseph’s father, John Woodill THOMAS died on 16 August 1881 at Akaroa, New Zealand. There are two different stories about how Joe’s father died. One was that he fell out of a boat in the Akaroa Harbour. The other is that he fell off a horse and lay in the snow all night. Either way, he got pneumonia badly. this flared up rheumatic fever which he may have had as a child and he died four weeks later.
John Woodill THOMAS was buried on 19 August 1881 in the Church of England Cemetery at Akaroa, Bank’s Peninsula, New Zealand. He is buried with his mother who had died six years earlier. John’s father, William THOMAS who was Joseph William THOMAS’s grandfather was still alive.
So Joseph William THOMAS as a small boy grew up in the picturesque town of Akaroa fatherless. His brother John Harold THOMAS was only a baby and another baby was on the way. Annette Mary Eleanor Jane THOMAS was born on 5 November 1881 at Akaroa in New Zealand. So Joe had one brother and one sister.
A few years later, Joe’s mother, Elizabeth or Eliza as she was known married John HEWETT on 1 April 1884 at St Peter’s Anglican Church at Akaroa, New Zealand. On 28 November 1884, Joe had a half brother. Elizabeth and John had a child, John Edward HEWITT followed by James Gordon HEWETT in 1885 both born at Akaroa, New Zealand
Joe’s Aunt Marian Jane THOMAS married William James MISSEN at this time in Akaroa. It was a small place so it’s likely that Joe was at this wedding.
Another Aunt, Betsy Ann THOMAS married Andreas Emmanuel ERIKSEN in 1888. Both of these Aunts lived close by and Joe may have even been raised in the same home with them after his father had died.
In 1884, Joe’s mother, Elizabeth ran a drapery business from a shop owned by her father, Joseph BATES at Akaroa. The drapery business failed forcing John HEWITT to file for bankruptcy. In his sworn statement to the Official Assignee in Bankruptcy, on 4 June 1885, he stated that the business had been carried on by his wife for about three years. He said:
“She has left the business and the place and I do not know where she is at present. I have filed my petition in consequence as I know there are large liabilities but I do not know to whom”.
Two weeks later Eliza had been located and swore a statement which revealed some fairly loose business arrangements, not common today, but probably typical of the time. By 1887 John was out of bankruptcy and he published a notice in the local newspaper stating he was no longer responsible for his wife’s debts.
Eliza and John HEWITT had another child: Stanley John Livingstone HEWETT was born 13 June 1889 at Akaroa, New Zealand.
Eliza and John separated about 1890. John was charged with assaulting Eliza on 21 December 1889. The report on the court case said: “the evidence disclosed a meleancholy state of affairs”. John was fined one shilling. It was very unusual in those times for a man to be charged for assaulting his wife so there is reason to believe that it may have been a little more serious. After John and Eliza had separated, custody was awarded of the two children, Gordon and Stanley to Eliza, and John was ordered to pay maintenance. Eldest son John Edward THOMAS was not included in the custody and maintenance orders as he was being brought up by his aunt and uncle. John failed to keep up the maintenance payments so the matter was back in court in July 1891. By this time John was working in Pahiatua in the North Island of New Zealand bush felling.
It’s not clear as to who brought up Joseph William THOMAS but there were lots of THOMAS, BATES and WOODILL Aunts, Uncles and cousins close by. Joe as he was known was keen on boats as a child and spent most of his time boating or rowing on the Akaroa harbour.
When Joe was a boy, a tidal wave swept into the harbour and flooded the lower shops. Joe found a butcher’s brine tub floating. He hopped into this and had his small half brother holding the tub with a piece of flax. However when the wave receded, half brother, Gordon let go and Joe floated out into the harbour! Eventually someone saw him and rowed out to rescue him.
Joe left school at age 12 and went away for several days on a fishing boat. Nobody knew where he was until his mother found him on the Akaroa wharf smoking a pipe. Some time after this, Joe travelled up to Hawkes Bay in the North Island of New Zealand where he got work bush-felling, shearing and cutting grass.
Joe decided to go back to his home, and only got as far as Wellington where he got a job on a sailing ship. After a couple of years he had made voyages to several parts of the world and had gained an A.B. certificate. He was unable however, to get a berth back to New Zealand without signing on for the return trip. At the time of the outbreak of the Boer War, he was a deck-hand on a small steamer trading around the coast of England.
Volunteers were urgently called for, and Joe at once offered his services in the Mounteds, having no desire to be a footslogger. His choice was the Imperial Yoemanry. He passed all preliminary tests and was accepted subject to a satisfactory riding test. When this took place, Joe came along dressed in a Jack Tar rig plus a leather belt from which hung an ugly looking sheath knife. The volunteers to go through the riding test with the exception of Joe, were all English lads. Most of them were from town jobs and hadn’t done much riding. Joe was allotted a mount that had thrown the other boys one after the other. Joe however stuck to his mount and rode to a standstill. Having passed the final test, he then went into camp to undergo his training. During the first night his ugly looking sheath knife, which none of the other boys liked the look of, mysteriously disappeared and he never saw it again.
Joe arrived in Africa just before orders had been received granting him a transfer from the Imperial Yeomanry. When reporting to the Captain, Joe was asked if he had a horse. He replied ‘No’ but intimated that if necessary he could get one. That night he stole along quietly to the Yeomanry Horse Lines and helped himself to three horses and tied them up in different places on the New Zealand lines. He thought that at least one of them might not be recognised. It transpired that none of them were, and until all the horses were handed over to the other units he had the three horses to attend to!
The tale is also told that some considerable time before going to Africa, Joe was desperately ill with enteric fever, so ill that his doctor thought he could not possibly survive. Other doctors were called in for consultation. One of the newcomers, after examining Joe thoroughly, remarked, ‘Poor boy, I’m afraid he is going.” Joe had been unconscious and had not spoken for some considerable time and obviously had regained consciousness and had understood what the doctor was referring to. He slowly opened his eyes and drawlingly said, “Going eh, I’m damn sure I’m not.”
Joe lived to return to New Zealand in the troop ship ‘Tagus’. On the ship he had a fierce encounter with another chap in the mess room. The sea was rough and pitching quite a bit, but Joe had better sea legs than the other, so was the victor.
Joe’s Aunt Marian Jane THOMAS had died at Masterton in 1900 while he was travelling.
After he came back to New Zealand, Joe began courting Helena Caroline KEEGAN at Akaroa on the wharf, but younger half brother Gordon insisted on hanging around so Joe picked him up by the scruff of his neck and the seat of his pants and dropped him in the harbour. He later had to jump in and save Gordon from drowning. Gordon later said that all he could remember of the incident was Joe wiping the water out of his eyes with a dirty sock.
Joe married Helena Caroline KEEGAN on 27 September 1903 at the home of Helena’s sister Ellen or Nell as she was known at Tennyson Street, Dannevirke, New Zealand.
Helena Caroline KEEGAN was born 26 August 1879 at The Kiak, Bank’s Peninsula, New Zealand. In 1902, like many of the Akaroa residents, she had moved to the area of Hawkes Bay in the North Island as farm land had come available. She lived with two of her sisters Agnes Gertrude KEEGAN and Ellen KEEGAN. She taught music and was a well known singer who raised a lot of money for various war causes. Helena or Lena as she was known was from a very large family. Her parents had come from Ireland.
On 29 January 1906 there first and only child was born – Jack Heaton THOMAS.
The same year on 10 December, Mary Ellen THOMAS previously Mary Ellen SMITH died. She was the wife of Joe’s Uncle William who he probably moved to Pahiatua with in his younger days. William THOMAS and Mary Ellen SMITH had married in 1893.
On 1 January 1907 Joe’s brother, John Harold THOMAS married Margaret Eleanor ROSS at Dannievirke, New Zealand. John had moved from Akaroa to Wairarapa as a young man around the same time that his Uncles of around the same age, possibly William and Harry THOMAS. They all got farms in the Pongaroa and Pahiatua area. John Harold THOMAS and Margaret Eleanor ROSS had three children: Cyril Alexander THOMAS 1910, Ina Lucy THOMAS 1911 and Roy Harold THOMAS in 1914.
It was a rough life and Joe would have known his Uncle, Harry THOMAS. It is thought that he moved to Hawkes Bay around the same time as Joe. Harry THOMAS was not much older than Joe. He was born in 1871 at Akaroa and had married Lucy WRIGHT on 18 March 1890. Joe’s brother Gordon had been a witness at the wedding. There was an accident at Pongaroa on 29 January 1909 where Harry THOMAS and his son William THOMAS had been arguing around a fire. It became heated and Harry ended up shooting himself and his son. His wife and daughter had run out into the bush to hide.
Joe’s other Uncle, George THOMAS who was only two years older than Joe got into a fight with somebody at Pahiatua and thought he had killed the person. He hadn’t but he went running and was never heard of again.
Joe’s Uncle William who had been a widower since the death of his wife Mary Ellen SMITH married a second time to Francis SHASKEY in 1910. Francis’ sister Annie had married Joe’s Uncle Isaac (known as Sam). Annie SHASKEY died in 1913. Joe was still living in the Hawkes Bay area at this time.
In 1915 (though not eligible by age which he lied about), Joe enlisted fro World War One, together with his half brother Gordon HEWITT. The people of Douglas gave them a farewell and they each received a pair of binoculars.
Joe’s half brother Stanley John Livingstone HEWETT married Margaret Amy SLY in 1915 at Christchurch, New Zealand. We don’t know whether Joe was able to attend the wedding as it might have been after he left for the war.
Joe and Gordon were in the trenches together and Joe was hit by the Germans. Gordon was a bit further along the line, so he put his helmet, gun and binoculars down, and went along the trench to see Joe carried away to the Red Cross Station. When Gordon returned to his place in the trench, his helmet, gun, binoculars had been blown up, right at the spot where hd had been standing.
Joe’s is remembered for his pranks. He was quite a larrikin but Gordon was a very serious man. He was the recipient of a Distinguished Conduct Medal in the war. He had been wounded in France in 1917 and wounded again in 1918 with gun shots to his head. Even after this he returned to his battalion in France and was finally discharged on 14 April 1919.
On 24 July 1915, Joe’s sister Annette Mary Eleanor Jane THOMAS married Henry Herbert CLIFFORD who was quite a renowned photographer born in 1872 Dunedin
Joe’s half-brother Edward (Ted) Bertram HEWITT died at Gallipoli in 1916. He was buried 12 January 1916 at Linwood Cemetery, Christchurch, New Zealand
Joe’s Aunt, Betsy Ann THOMAS who had married Andreas Emmanuel ERIKSEN died 16 May 1916. She was another one of the THOMAS family who had moved to Pahiatua in the North Island of New Zealand so Joe would have spent time with her and the family.
On 13 July 1916, Joe’s mother Elizabeth HEWETT previously Elizabeth THOMAS and prior to that Elizabeth Ann BATES died at 317 Montreal Street, Christchurch, New Zealand. It’s likely that she was sharing a house owned by her daughter Annie. Joe was probably still away at the war.
Joe’s cousin Samuel THOMAS (son of Joe’s Uncle Isaac, also known as Sam THOMAS) was killed in action. He died 14 January 1918
Another cousin, William THOMAS son of Joe’s Uncle William THOMAS and Mary Ellen SMITH also died in World War I.
Joe found it hard to settle when he came home from the war. The army life had suited him and as Helena and their son Jack had managed the farm and milking while he was away, he let them continue to do this when he returned while he went out drinking.
Joe’s Uncle William’s second wife Francis SHASKEY died around this time on 30 January 1923 at Pongaroa. She was 49.
Joe’s wife, Helena had been very close to her sister Agnes Gertrude KEEGAN known as Gertie. Gertie married William Herbert HALLAM and moved to Auckland. When son Jack was old enough he saved up and bought a car and drove Helena to Auckland for a visit with her sister. Gertie’s daughter Jessie, was quite impressed that Jack had a car and in time a romance started.
Around this time a family secret was announced because Jack and Jessie were first cousins. Story goes that there was some illegitamacy in the family so even though the whole story wasn’t told, it was understood that one of the sisters had different parents. The rest of the secret was guarded to the grave. Those sorts of things were private and caused family shame in those days.
Helena’s birth certificate indicates that her mother was Alice Dobson. We could suggest a number of various scenarios but nothing further is known for sure. The long and the short of it is that Jack and Jessie were able to marry and on 30 June 1931 they married at St Barnabas Church, Mt Eden, Auckland, New Zealand.
Sadly Helena, became ill and on 22 February 1935 and died at New Plymouth Hospital of Aortic regurgitation and mitral stenosis, Cerebral tumour. She was buried on 23 February 1935 at Te Henui Cemetery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.
When Helena died so suddenly it was an extreme shock to Joe but also his son Jack and daughter in law Jessie. Joe simply ran away unable to face his loss. Nobody knew where he was. Jack eventually left Jessie with two young children and a farm worker for a month, while he looked for Joe. He finally found him in Weymouth, near Manurewa in Auckland, New Zealand. He was in a drunken sleep under a hedge. He didn’t ever return to farming but left the farm and it’s debts to Jack and Jessie and returned to the sea which he loved.
In 1940 Joe’s Uncle, Isaac Samuel THOMAS died. Isaac lived at Pongaroa so Joe would have grown up with him in Akaroa and then in Hawkes Bay as a young adult. 1940 was also when Joe’s two nephews died. Robert Henry CLIFFORD died in action in August and Alistair Bertram CLIFFORD died in November from a tumour in his head. These two nephews were sons of Joe’s sister Annette Mary Eleanor Jane THOMAS (known as Annie).
When Joe left Taranaki, it was by boat that he apparently rowed solo to Kawhia, with his dog and a few possessions. It was a rough trip, but Joe had been a good oarsman from his childhood when he and brother Gordon Hewitt won rowing championships in Akaroa. As the story goes, he tipped some of his possessions overboard when it got too rough and he was in danger of not making it. After walking up onto the beach at Kawhia, he roamed back down the coast and fetched the belongings that the tide had washed up.
Joe acquired a one-roomed batch on the sea shore of Weymouth, painted black with pitch. It was right on the water’s edge, perched on stilts, with the water washing under it at high tide. At one point he had an argument with the town council who wanted him to pay rates, but because his batch stuck out over the water, he was indignant and refused to pay. The batch also had a ‘long-drop’ toilet system into the water! When the council chased him about rates, he made sure he was living out at sea in his boat. Throughout his whole life he loved the sea.
Joe would visit his son at Ngatea in later years and daughter-in-law Jessie would clean him up and look after him. He also spent time at Hawkes Bay with his first cousin William George Samuel (Bill) THOMAS where he would help dig the garden. His sister Annie had offered to give him a job collecting rents and debts but he didn’t think that was for him.
Joseph William THOMAS died on 10 November 1955 at Weymouth, Auckland, New Zealand. His funeral was remembered as a lonely affair with only a few family present. He was buried at Weymouth, Auckland, New Zealand.