Roy was born in 1920 to Clara Townsend (nee Belcher) and an unknown father. Clara had lost her first husband to an early death and she seems to have been going through great difficulty. Having four other boys and a girl already with no breadwinner she placed Roy in the Marton children's home at the tender age of 6 weeks.

Roy was to spend the next 19 years of his life in the Hunterville Childrens Home which was run established by Norman Hyde. The home was a christian environment with regular reading of scripture and chores. It ran on donations from the public and many of the former residents would return to the home as adults to visit. This article http://www.stevecooper.org.nz/Biography/BioCh02P1.html describes the conditions in the home.

Roy left the home with the outbreak of World War II where he drove an ammunition truck in the Middle East. The only war story he ever to told my mother was when he was stationed in Egypt his commander told him if he were to ever hit a person with his truck, he was to reverse over them and make sure they were dead to prevent the army being sued. One time he hit a child but didn't have the heart to go back, so sped off.

Upon returning home from the War he married Edna Hainsworth and had 6 children, 4 girls and 2 boys, one of which died in infancy.

The couple spent most of their married life working on various dairy farms in the North Island and moved to Huntley in 1968. Roy got a job as a stock agent for newton king and later was a tea boy at the Huntly power station

Roy died at the age of 68 on boxing day 1989 of Leukemia. He was buried in the Huntley cemetery.