By Emma-Jean Kelly.

Jean Rodger Kelly née Martin was my paternal grandmother. So far as I can tell from letters she wrote to her husband Jack Kelly, she was an optimistic, funny and brave woman. She faced her middle-class Scottish Protestant family’s approbation for falling in love with a working class Irish Catholic immigrant in 1930s Christchurch. That takes some courage!

There are now four generations of Kelly women who proudly carry Jean’s name.

Figure One: Jean and John Kelly sitting in the sunshine (1960s?). Thanks to Dad (John) for keeping Jean’s letters, and to Uncle Mike for insisting we ignore Grandad Jack’s instructions to burn them.

Jean grew up in relative affluence at 64 Fairfield Ave, Spreydon, a house which unfortunately no longer exists.

Figure Two: 64 Fairfield Ave, Spreydon, Christchurch; Jean’s sister Mavis with their grandmother Honora.

Jean had three siblings, Keith, Douglas and Mavis, and they were all involved in Scottish dancing and related activities. We have a lovely photo of them dressed up for a photo in Scottish gear on my Dad’s wall.

Figures Three and Four: Card from Sister Theodosia to Jean, dated 1929 on the front of the card.

We’re not sure what year Jean met Jack, but this card dated 1929 is from Sister Theodosia, a Catholic Nun, and is addressed to Jean. There’s one for Jack too, but it’s undated. Could Jack and Jean have met as early as 1929? If so they had some self control, because they didn’t marry until 1934 at the Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch, and as Jean said ‘had Maureen 9 months to the day later’.

 She recalls in a letter to Jack on Anzac Day 1934 seeing him the year before –

Has been raining all morning but it is clearing now, just in time for the procession. I am not going up. I have been thinking all day of Anzac Day last year. You remember I put a note for you under Jinnie’s door, and we went to Nola’s at night.

We are lucky enough to have letters from Jean to Jack, written from the time of their engagement in 1934 to 1937. This covers a time with lots of change. They were moving from one flat to another, Jack was working in other towns on the railways, and then they made the big move to Wellington. Jean also travelled to spend time with Jack’s brother Mick and his wife Frances in Petone, and to Jack’s sister Lizzie on the Pahiatua Farm. Jean seems to have been embraced by the Kelly family, at a time when her own family were unhappy with her.

Figure Five: Jean and Jack Kelly, probably Pahiatua, 1930s

Jean’s letters are full of delightful detail – the cost of things, their first-born baby Maureen’s behaviour. Jean and Maureen regularly visited her brother Doug Martin and his wife Nada in Miramar, Wellington which is nice to know, given the estrangement from the rest of the family in Christchurch.

In April 1934, Jean wrote to Jack from Petone, where she had been staying with Jack’s brother Mick and his wife Frances. They must have been newly engaged at this point –

I am glad you are at the Hotel. I hated the thought of you in a hut. Hope you enjoyed the euchre. Did you wear a placard saying that you are engaged?

Your pullover is growing steadily. Do you remember the photo we saw of the altar in the Catholic Church at Mt. Cook looking through the window at the mountains, well Bill Churchill bought in an enlargement of the original photo. Wish you could have seen it.

I gave Frances and the family your message and kisses, at least Pat and Joan have to collect theirs yet. Frances sends love from them all. Pat was quite worried to find that you went without your ring after he waving (?). It hasn’t been off my hand since Sunday night. Mick said he has a photo [of] you in uniform and he is going to look it out and give it to me. I am also bringing back your photo of Agnes and her husband. Among my collection is a photo of Bill as a baby, and the passenger list of the Athenic. Darling I miss you terribly, although no one knows.

Pat, Bill and Joan are Mick and Frances’ children. It’s neat to see that mention of the passenger list of the Athenic, which was the boat Jack came to New Zealand on in 1926. We still have that in a biscuit tin of family documents at Dad’s place.

Jean then returned to her family home in Fairfield Ave, Christchurch and she described some unpleasant comments about the Irish made by a friend there.

But Jean wasn’t always focussed on family matters. It turns out she was a bit of a critic of films too. In an undated letter which is probably from 1935, she described going to see David Copperfield at the cinema –

Lizzie and I went to see “David Copperfield” last night, and it was disappointing. Some of the characters were good, Mr and Mrs McCorba [sic Micawber] and Uriah Heep particularly, but what were supposed to be Old English scenes were quite obviously faked, and the whole thing was quite unconvincing, and so depressing made me want to howl.

Although she doesn’t mention it except once in a letter where she says she is to be the ‘entertainment’ for the evening, Jean was an accomplished singer and pianist too.

Jean and Jack set up home in Christchurch for a while with firstborn Maureen, first at Ensor’s Road in a flat which turned out to be damp, and then they moved to Grafton St. Because Jack was away working, Jean had to organise everything herself, from the moving of boxes to the floor varnishing, but seems to have found it exciting and satisfying, despite being anxious about money.

I had an exciting day today at the house. Went there about ten and varnished the front room and hall. They look lovely now. I got some linoleum yesterday for the breakfast room and it came this morning. I stained the floor round it, and will varnish it later on. The sun comes in the back door about eleven, and the other afternoon I was there at five in the afternoon, and the sun was streaming in the door right through to the breakfast room. I am longing to plant some flowers and am going to get some next week. Almost forgot about Maureen today, bless her.

She loves Grafton St., and so will you, if only you can come soon and take up residence. It all looks so stunning and homelike in the daytime, no one else walking about. You will notice a wonderful difference after the flat. And the house is so totally different too. I am looking forward to showing you it all. It is lovely having to get it all ready. Am doing just a little each day. It is more pleasant doing it like this than if we were living there. There are a lot of gladiolas there already up and all sorts of things.

Enough about the house.

We are going to the other English’s tomorrow night. I sent away the wedding photos today to the three Kelly families, got some thick cardboard for them so they will arrive whole.

The sending of wedding photos to the Kellys is lovely to hear about – perhaps that was Mick and Francis Kelly, and the Kellys at Pahiatua, but it could also have been the Irish family who were still back home at Portarlington and the Pyke of Rushall, and maybe the Dublin-based siblings of Jack as well. Jean never met the Irish-based family, presumably as it was very expensive to travel, but there were letters, newspaper clippings and photos shared throughout their lives.

In 1937 Jean lost some money – it doesn’t sound like much by today’s standards, but £1 in 1937 clearly bought a lot more than $1 today.[1]

Envelope postmarked 7 April 1937, stamped ‘X Safety “Take Care” Avoid Risks’ addressed to Mr J. Kelly, c/o Station Master Pukekohe

1 The Mill Road, Petone, Tuesday

Jack Dear,

I don’t know whatever you will think of me.  I feel simply sick with worrying, kept waking up all night and feeling my heart go plonk down, and then I would remember what had happened. I was so looking forward to you coming home and now everything is spoilt. I suppose you will say I have been losing money all the time.

When I went in the shop Maureen cried and jumped down off the pram and I had to sit her on the counter and hold her with one hand and I suppose I didn’t put them in properly or something. They were rolled together. I don’t know what to do, I feel so miserable. I will draw £1 out when I need it. Wish to goodness I had put more of it in when I put the £4. I think I had better talk about something else.

No matter what else was going on in her life, Pahiatua seemed to have been a warm and safe place of fun and refuge for Jean from the time she got together with Jack. Being a railway family reliant on Jack’s job for location and housing, they were always moving around, but Pahiatua and the warm welcome from Jack’s sister Lizzie and Aunt (Bridget Kelly née O’Grady) was constant. Jean describes a typical day at the farm –

Maureen tries to say “Lizzie” and gets pretty near it. Lizzie takes her all over the place and plays with her instead of doing her work…When Maureen goes into the sitting room, Lizzie says ‘Come back here’ and Maureen shrieks with laughter and goes for her life, and Lizzie’s after her.

Figure Six: Maureen smiling in a bay window

Again from Mill Rd, Petone, in 1937, Jean wrote to ask if Jack knows where he might be working in the future, and also tells him the latest about their second-born child John and some odd advice she has received from the doctor regarding his teeth.

Ada told me today that Walsh told Mick they want to keep you in Auckland [note Jack’s Railway Workers Union card is with this letter, and the Hon. Secretary was G.W. Walsh in 1936]. Mrs Frost thinks it might be an April fool trick, but I wondered whether you had heard anything. Jack [English?] is holding his wristwatch and John is playing with it. John weighed 16lb today, pretty good. He said it was good to give him Glucose as it helps the teeth. I started him on Groats instead of Weet-bix and the chemist said that is quite good. Maureen’s teeth are not through but they don’t seem to worry her.

Jean always missed Jack when he was away, but kept her sense of humour and made friends despite (or perhaps because of) her loneliness.

She described spending time with a neighbour when they lived in Mill Road at Petone in 1937 –

This morning about 8.45 Mrs Frost asked me if I would go to the Hutt so we left at ten and got back at twelve. It is a beautiful day and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a most lovely park there and we took Maureen on the swings, on a sort of merry go round thing, and on the slide. She didn’t like the swing at first, kept saying ‘I don’t like it’, but after a while she was alright. She loved the slide. Mrs Frost took her up as high as she could reach and Maureen lay back and slid down and I caught her. She thought it was lovely. When you come home we can go over again and there is a park here too. Bill Frost is going to Palmerston tomorrow for a fortnight. They have just bought a beautiful short wave radio. She told him that she and I are going to make whoopee while you are both away.

Figure Seven: Jean Kelly, Aunty Bridget Kelly and Jean’s sister-in-law Lizzie Kelly, Pahiatua

I feel really lucky that we have these letters, even if they are from a short window of time (1934 – 1937). They show us a little of what the early days of Jean and Jack’s marriage were like. She clearly loved him, and was quite open about her feelings. In one of the last letters, Jean described an aborted attempt to go to the cinema, interrupted at half time due to Maureen and John crying with their babysitter (who was probably Lizzie at Pahiatua). Despite this interruption, she says –

I thoroughly enjoyed the little holiday and it was just long enough. Best not to wear out one’s welcome, I think. They liked having us too, especially Lizzie she does love the kiddies and said she will miss them.

I will have to pay my electric light bill this week. Should be able to save some this time.

I bought back [from the Pahiatua farm] apples, carrots, tomatoes, 2 tins cake, soap, 2lb butter, ½ dozen eggs and a flask of milk. They are really wonderful.

Am longing to see your ugly face again,

Best love, Maureen, John and Jean.

Figure Eight: John Eamon and Maureen Alice Kelly, probably John’s first day of school. John’s middle name was to remember Eamon de Valera, leader of the Irish Republic when it eventually came to be, and Alice was for a sibling of Jack’s who died aged 17 in 1909.

Figure Nine: Maureen, John, Michael, Jean and Carole on the back of Colin’s cut down truck, Pahiatua

Figure Ten: Jean on the back of daughter Maureen’s boyfriend’s motorbike, Pahiatua with Michael and Carole

Figure Eleven: Lizzie taking a photo, Pahiatua

Figure Twelve: Lizzie transporting a sheep on the tractor, Pahiatua

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[1] 1 pound = 20 shillings; 1 shilling = 12 pence; at decimalisation, £1 = $2. £100 in 1937 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £8,705.28 today, an increase of £8,605.28 over 88 years. The pound had an average inflation rate of 5.21% per year between 1937 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 8,605.28%. This means that today’s prices are 87.05 times as high as average prices since 1937, according to the Office for National Statistics composite price index. A pound today only buys 1.149% of what it could buy back then. The inflation rate in 1937 was 3.75%. https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1937