Jane Pope

What a colourful personality was "Aunty Jane Pope." She told her own story as given in an interview with the 'Waikato Times' shortly after her 85th birthday in 1940 - with a few amendments:

"A flight to Sydney in the flying-boat 'Awarua' in celebration of her 85th birthday added another incident to the long and varied life of Mrs Jane Pope, of Hamilton. Mrs Pope is the oldest passenger to travel by Tasman Empire Airways and as the trip was made actually on the anniversary of her birthday, it is probable that she is the first person to celebrate this occasion in both Auckland and Sydney on the same day.

Mrs Pope is by no means new to air travel, having made a number of flights by Union Airway Service within New Zealand including four trips across the Cook Strait. In her early days she had cross the Strait in at least five different sailing ships: the 'Canterbury', 'Cynthia', 'Spec' 'Pearl' and 'Hero'; and had visited Australia a number of times by steamer. Two of these Tasman crossings were made during the Great War under blackout conditions and she experienced on one occasion an alarm given for boat drill, bu the threatened danger proved false. With this experience of three forms of travel, her preference is for flying and she remarked that her previous inland trips were not long enough; so she decided, when a Tasman air service was first mooted, she would take a flight to Sydney.

Mrs Pope's parents came to New Zealand in the first barque to be chartered for emigrants by the New Zealand Company, the 'William Bryan' of 312 tonnes, which left Plymouth, England in 1840 with 148 passengers. After an uneventful trip the settlers took up land in the Taranaki District, Mrs Pope's elder sister being the first white child born in that province.

Born in New Plymouth in 1855, Mrs Pope was among the refugees sent to Nelson during the Taranaki Wars. Her father, a trained militiaman, was wounded in the Battle of Waireka. Mrs Pope went to school at Picton, Kaiuma and Mahikipawa, later removing to Hood's Bay, Pelorus Sound and in 1870 she went to live at Wanganui. After two years there, she returned to Pelorus Sound where she was married at the age of 18 to James Radley. Her husband died three years later, leaving her with two young children and in 1878, she married Mr Frank Wilson Pope at Havelock, who likewise, was born in Taranaki.

Mrs Pope kept a maternity home for about 25 years and was a midwife for 40, during which time hundreds of babies were born under her care. She still corresponds with many of these children whom she refers to her "Havelock Babies", one of whom was a younger sister of Ernest Rutherford (Havelock's famous son), later to become the wife of the Headmaster-Founder of Southwell School, Hamilton."

Jane Pope was a staunch member of the Methodist Church wherever she lived and in October 1899 she was invited to lay the foundation stone of the new church in Havelock. Her daughter Jessie used to tell the family (the O'Brien's of Kiama, NSW), that the only Sunday activity that she was allowed as a child was attending church in the morning and a sedate walk in the afternoon with the minister's daughter. One Sunday as they crossed a small stream, they became aware that the water was teaming with whitebait; Jessie wanted to scoop them out with her hands they were so plentiful but her friend was horrified. They couldn't catch whitebait on a Sunday, they would come back tomorrow. And so they did, but the whitebait didn't.

Another story reflects the frugality practised in earlier days. Jane's younger son Redvers was to go to College as a boarder, a great event. In due course his mother received a long list of clothing requirements mostly in half dozens: socks, singlets, trousers etc. "Stuff and nonsense he'll take what he needs!" she said, throwing the list aside. And so he did but some time later his mother received an account from the school for the remainder of the requirements which they had purchased for the boy "so that he would feel on a par with the other lads." Alas Redvers suffered all his life from acute bronchitis and asthma and after achieving considerable success in his chosen field, died in Tauranga at the age of 47 years old, only three years after his mother's death.

In 1941 Jane Pope, together with her two nieces Alice Maud Rucroft and Ada Haywood, attended the Centennial Celebration of the arrival of the 'William Bryan' at New Plymouth where she was one of the few living children of the first settlers to be present. The Prime Minister and Mrs Fraser invited her to sit with them and to tell her story of the life and conditions of those early days.

Jane Pope enjoyed excellent health and was able to do her own housework, walk to Church and walk to visit her friends until the end. She died in 1944 at the age of 89 years. She is buried with Frank in the Hamilton Cemetery. (Frank passed away in 1936).

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Climo-48