Hubert was born in Fermanagh according to his marriage registration. He arrived in Auckland with his brother John on the City of Auckland 10th December 1870.
The first record we can find for Hubert is an 1876 Franklin District Electoral Roll that describes Hubert as a draper in Otahuhu. He was working with his brother George for John Hall who had a general merchandise store there, George was a grocer and Hubert was a draper. The listing tells us that they lived in “furnished apartments” in a dwelling belonging to John Hall on Great South Road.
Hubert's signature from his will dated 22nd February 1908 |
Men of the Armed Constabulary Field Force Photograph Collection P.4.72 Puki Ariki |
Hubert entered the Constabulary at the beginning of a process of centralization in which the Provincial Police Forces were amalgamated with the Armed Constabulary into one Force and redefined as two divisions, The New Zealand Constabulary Force and The Constabulary Field Force, which was armed. The Field Force was to consist of about 350 men stationed in four reserve divisions at Opotiki/Wairoa, Waikato (Kihikihi), Taupo (Tapuaeharuru) and Taranaki (Opunake). Initial training was given in the Armed Constabulary Mt.Cook Depot Barracks on Point Halswell in Wellington. After two or three months of military training, the men were posted to field duty as needed.
Hubert was posted to Opotiki, which became the Field Force Headquarters in the Bay of Plenty in 1877. After four year’s service, on the 27th September 1883 Hubert was discharged from the Constabulary at Opotiki and went gold mining.
Two years later Hubert re-enlisted in the Armed Constabulary, enlisting on the 26th June 1885 and sworn in two weeks later on the 11th July. During this period Hubert must have served in Taranaki because he resigned from the Armed Constabulary Force in Opunake on the 1st of January 1886. His nephew, Bernard Willis remembered that his Great Uncle Hubert was one of the Constabulary sent to search for survivors after Mount Tarawera erupted on the 10th June 1886, though it may have been William who went to search for survivors there and had his legs badly burnt in the hot ash.
Hubert must have enlisted again because we find him discharged a second time, this time to the Wellington Police Force on the 5th October 1887. Many Constabulary Officers applied for transfer to the Police Branch where they could expect better pay and working conditions, an improved social status and a more secure environment. Police standards were high and only the very best of the Constabulary became Police Officers. Hubert was transferred to the Dunedin Police Force.
On the 5th November 1888 Hubert married Isabella (Walker) Corrison in the Dunedin Registry Office . Hubert gave his age as thirty-two and Isabella as thirty-three when they married; Isabella was an English woman, born in Nottingham, who had been previously married to Daniel Corrison. Hubert and Isabella went to live in Clarendon Road.
From 1892 to 1895 they lived in Port Chalmers and then in Palmerston, a small town between Dunedin and Oamaru. In 1898 they were living next to the Police Station on the Main South Road at Caversham and by 1902, had moved to Vogel Street, Dunedin. [1]
Hubert and Isabella retired to Manaia in 1903 and bought a block of land on the corner of Manaia and Hicks Road, not far from John, Margaret and William at Kapuni. Bernard thought Hubert’s section in Manaia was a grant following his constabulary service while Mary said Hubert bought 10 acres in Manaia when he retired. Bernard wrote “My Dad, Robert Willis (Hubert’s nephew) used to point out the house when we passed in Dad’s tin-lizzie truck on the way to Kaponga. The house has been re-sited but is still (in 1980) in existence.” [2]
Hubert’s very serviceable police cloak ended its days behind the door at Rowan. Bernard Willis remembered, “I was once sent to school wearing Hubert’s blue police cape. I objected strongly to having to wear it and the older boys took it off me and had turns at playing policemen in it.”
His nephew John Wright remembered Hubert as a bluff, hearty type with a yellow tobacco stained beard. John recalled that his great-uncle Hubert enjoyed his retirement – though some family members did not approve of his “social drinking”. As Mary said, “he used to go to Manaia about three times a week to tank up.”
Hubert's grave in the cemetery at Manaia |
Hubert Willis died 19th April 1915 He is buried with his brother Robert in Manaia Cemetery.
His wife Isabella, sold their Manaia home to Charles Bridgeman and went back to Otago. She died in Gabriels Gully in 1917 and is buried in Lawrence Cemetery the “former wife of Daniel Corrison”.
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