The Myers Family History
Arthur Harold Montagu Maurice
These notes were related to and recorded by staff at Coombrae
by my grandfather, A.H.M. Maurice
Arthur Harold Montagu Maurice was born in Conway, Wales on 5 July 1909 to Ida Muriel Maurice (nee Sykes) and Arthur Wroughton Montagu Maurice. They lived on a farm at Taunton, England where his father was shot and killed in a hunting accident when he was five years old.
The family moved to Clevedon to live with his father's mother. She was a grand old lady and only saw the children for tea, otherwise they were upstairs in the nursery. He first went to school in Clevedon and sang in the church choir as a soprano.
They moved to Bath and as a nine year old, he went to a public boarding school in Horshaw, Sussex called Christ's Hospital, which first started in London in 1553 but later shifted to Horshaw in 1902.
At 17 he came out to New Zealand to a dairy farm near New Plymouth. Then spent two years on a sheep farm as a shepherd at Rangiwahia, and later gained more experience an high country in the MacKenzie country in the South Island. In the 1920's he went back to Rangiwahia where he met and married Margaret Cecil Myers. They had three children: two daughters and a son, farming two or three miles nearer Kimbolton at Bluff Road than the Myers farm.
From 1940-46 he was in the Army in the 19th Battalion Armoured Regiment serving in Eygpt and Italy. He came home a commissioned officer reaching the rank of Captain. He returned after the war to the family farm which had been looked after by his father-in-law. He was a Kiwitea County Councillor for 12 years, nine years as Chairman.
On shifting to 19 acres at Reids Line, Feilding they had owner-trained racehorses as a hobby that started on the farm. Winning 28 races and having such horses as Superior King and Idle Fancy. They won the Feilding Jockey Club Manchester Cup twice, and also the Taumaranui Cup. Arthur was a member of the Feilding Jockey Club for 40 years and a steward-treasurer and president over a 30 year span. While on the farm members of the family went hunting and he became Deputy Master of the Manawatu Hunt.
He was a long term member of the Feilding Club and a life member of the Rangitikei Club. In 1949 he was made a Justice of the Peace and in later life, sat in for magistrates at the Feilding Court. He became a qualified Real Estate agent and also a National Mutual Life Insurance agent. A Rotarian and, back in the farming days, a member of the Masonic Lodge.
In 1960 Arthur and Cecil built the Feilding Motel and ran them for 12 years until their retirement. During this time he was Chairman of the Centennial Committee of the Manchester Centennial Celebrations in 1974. A Feilding Borough Councillor for three years and a foundation member of the Trustee Savings Bank and trustee for 12 years. His interest in antiques lead him to do a lot of antique valuing and his knowledge led to giving lectures in the lower North Island. He was a founding member and Chairman of the Feilding Antique Club.
They retired to West St in 1972 after going for a trip to UK and Europe (his first trip home since the war when he had a fortnight's leave from duty). In 1984 they shifted to a smaller house in Coronation St after he had recovered from several strokes over an eight year span. Another major stroke at Coronation St made him put himself in Ranfurly Rest Home, a place he used to manage when it was a hospital. He transferred after a year to join his wife in Coombrae Rest Home.