Small amphibian aircraft, Grumman Widgeons, flew Auckland skies for more than 35 years spearheaded by legendary pilot Captain Fred Ladd. These aircraft connected islands in the Hauraki Gulf, remote Northland resorts and many other places, and people… for leisure, on business, responding to medical emergencies or for rescues. The affable Fred Ladd, and the company […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-14 01:43:472020-04-14 21:54:12Recalling Captain Fred Ladd and his amphibian planes
Eric Sydney Bright’s name has always been connected with a tragic fire aboard the oil tanker “Trocas” on November 15th 1943 at an Auckland wharf. He died below-decks during fire-fighting operations but, because of essential war-time secrecy, all details surrounding the fire and his death could, and did not, emerge at the time. I […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-13 08:16:442020-04-13 08:16:44SS Trocas and the Brave Fireman - A Story Wrapped in Wartime Secrecy
I don’t have green-fingers: my gardening friend has – and a few years back he renewed his interest in carnations and found they were no longer easily attainable in New Zealand. He imported a wide range of varieties to replenish stocks, including some of the classics, and the cuttings arrived from the UK as air-freight […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-13 03:14:232020-04-13 03:14:23Carnations in New Zealand – The Early Years
In 2014 Justices of the Peace in New Zealand celebrated the 200th anniversary of the first JP taking office in the Bay of Islands. Thomas Kendall was appointed in November 1814, the first Justice of the Peace inaugurating one of the oldest institutions in New Zealand. This article was written in 2014 for publication to […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-12 03:54:552020-04-13 01:44:39Thomas Kendall - New Zealand's First Justice of the Peace
In 2014 it was decided to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of World War One on the Justices of the Peace website, featuring 4 Justices who served abroad, Reginald Langdale Evatt, William Forrest, John A. Lee, and Reginald Judson. The series was called We Are Remembering Them…. these are their stories. Lest We […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-09 08:25:052020-05-27 01:51:41Justices of the Peace in World War One
As late as the 1950s friends recalled seeing stone ruins of St Thomas’s Church at the corner of St Heliers Bay Road and Kohimarama Road. I, too, can remember them. We asked then, and now, why the former church lay in ruins, seemingly abandoned? How long had the stonework been deteriorating and what was the […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-08 09:59:142020-04-23 21:54:24St Thomas’s - a Church in Ruins
We were definitely “St John kids”: father’s ambulance work as a volunteer had a profound effect on our family’s life for all those years we lived at home. St John was inextricably woven into all our family activities. First Recollections My first memories of Epsom Ambulance Division were as perhaps a five year old (1950) […]
Events in Auckland in the mid-1880s provided conspiracy and intrigue such as the Colony had never seen. The ingredients included a jilted lover, a planned kidnap, murder, theft of a ship and her cargo, a touch of piracy and a getaway across the high seas. It centered on two men who, like the women involved, […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-08 00:51:482020-04-08 00:51:48Murder, Escapade and Intrigue in Early Auckland
It must be one of the few times, if not the only time, that New Zealand police have arrested a firefighter while he was on duty, fighting a major outbreak. The sequence of events took place in Albert Street, Auckland, on the night of 10th August, 1883 and it’s a story of violence, envy, retribution […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-06 23:39:272020-04-06 23:39:27Police vs Fire - A Public Confrontation - 1883
Auckland’s Grand Hotel was destroyed by fire in May 1901 with the loss of five lives. It was the worst in a series of major blazes that plagued Auckland at the time and its consequences forced the City Council to address the hopelessly inadequate fire brigade. Calamity Equals = Catalyst Calamity is often the […]
https://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.png00Ric Carlyonhttps://dispatches.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Dispatches-Logo.pngRic Carlyon2020-04-06 04:19:582020-04-07 21:29:46Grand Hotel Fire, 1901 - A Turning Point
Recalling Captain Fred Ladd and his amphibian planes
Miscellaneous, PeopleSmall amphibian aircraft, Grumman Widgeons, flew Auckland skies for more than 35 years spearheaded by legendary pilot Captain Fred Ladd. These aircraft connected islands in the Hauraki Gulf, remote Northland resorts and many other places, and people… for leisure, on business, responding to medical emergencies or for rescues. The affable Fred Ladd, and the company […]
SS Trocas and the Brave Fireman – A Story Wrapped in Wartime Secrecy
Fire, MiscellaneousEric Sydney Bright’s name has always been connected with a tragic fire aboard the oil tanker “Trocas” on November 15th 1943 at an Auckland wharf. He died below-decks during fire-fighting operations but, because of essential war-time secrecy, all details surrounding the fire and his death could, and did not, emerge at the time. I […]
Carnations in New Zealand – The Early Years
MiscellaneousI don’t have green-fingers: my gardening friend has – and a few years back he renewed his interest in carnations and found they were no longer easily attainable in New Zealand. He imported a wide range of varieties to replenish stocks, including some of the classics, and the cuttings arrived from the UK as air-freight […]
Thomas Kendall – New Zealand’s First Justice of the Peace
Justices of the PeaceIn 2014 Justices of the Peace in New Zealand celebrated the 200th anniversary of the first JP taking office in the Bay of Islands. Thomas Kendall was appointed in November 1814, the first Justice of the Peace inaugurating one of the oldest institutions in New Zealand. This article was written in 2014 for publication to […]
Justices of the Peace in World War One
JPs in World War One, Justices of the PeaceIn 2014 it was decided to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of World War One on the Justices of the Peace website, featuring 4 Justices who served abroad, Reginald Langdale Evatt, William Forrest, John A. Lee, and Reginald Judson. The series was called We Are Remembering Them…. these are their stories. Lest We […]
St Thomas’s – a Church in Ruins
MiscellaneousAs late as the 1950s friends recalled seeing stone ruins of St Thomas’s Church at the corner of St Heliers Bay Road and Kohimarama Road. I, too, can remember them. We asked then, and now, why the former church lay in ruins, seemingly abandoned? How long had the stonework been deteriorating and what was the […]
Epsom Division, St John Ambulance Brigade, Auckland
EpsomWe were definitely “St John kids”: father’s ambulance work as a volunteer had a profound effect on our family’s life for all those years we lived at home. St John was inextricably woven into all our family activities. First Recollections My first memories of Epsom Ambulance Division were as perhaps a five year old (1950) […]
Murder, Escapade and Intrigue in Early Auckland
PeopleEvents in Auckland in the mid-1880s provided conspiracy and intrigue such as the Colony had never seen. The ingredients included a jilted lover, a planned kidnap, murder, theft of a ship and her cargo, a touch of piracy and a getaway across the high seas. It centered on two men who, like the women involved, […]
Police vs Fire – A Public Confrontation – 1883
FireIt must be one of the few times, if not the only time, that New Zealand police have arrested a firefighter while he was on duty, fighting a major outbreak. The sequence of events took place in Albert Street, Auckland, on the night of 10th August, 1883 and it’s a story of violence, envy, retribution […]
Grand Hotel Fire, 1901 – A Turning Point
FireAuckland’s Grand Hotel was destroyed by fire in May 1901 with the loss of five lives. It was the worst in a series of major blazes that plagued Auckland at the time and its consequences forced the City Council to address the hopelessly inadequate fire brigade. Calamity Equals = Catalyst Calamity is often the […]