Alexander Devonport
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Alexander Roy Devonport (1912 - 1931)

Alexander Roy Devonport
Born in New Zealandmap
Ancestors ancestors
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died at about age 19 in Greenmeadows, Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealandmap
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Profile last modified | Created 28 Sep 2018
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Biography

He had a brother Charles Edward Devonport, ordained a Catholic priest.

In the 1931 Napier earthquake, two priests and several seminarians at the Catholic Seminary in Greenmeadows were killed. [1]

Died, a victim of the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake, Alexander Devonport of Fendalton, Christchurch, at the Roman Catholic Seminary in Greenmeadows. [2]

Frank Devonport reflections about his brother: Alexander Roy Devonport 05-04-1912 – 03-02-1931

Born 5/4/192. Baptised 9 April 1912 St Mary’s. The names my parents gave Alec (sometimes spelt Alex) are probably of Scottish origin. I believe that my paternal grandmother, Isabella Banks, came from Scotland and one of her ancestors was called, Alexis or Alexia.

My memory of Alec is very limited. In effect he left home when I had just turned five. I do remember though that he once locked Molly and me in the washhouse at Fendalton Rd. The washhouse was separate from the main house and we had to scream to attract someone to let us out. I also remember another time when we were playing hide and seek and seeing Alex climbing out of a window in the house.

Alec and my oldest brother, Jack, probably had primary school education in Lincoln, Hornby and, after the family moved to Fendalton, at Elmwood. I understand that, after completing his primary school education, Alec was set to go to a non-Catholic school but I am not sure which one. At that time a priest, probably a Marist, called at the house and the result was that Alec went to St Bede’s as a day boy from 1925-7. (See also the account in the commentary on Mary Devonport – Sister Teresita). In 1928 and 1929 he boarded at St Bede’s because he apparently indicated that he was considering entering the priesthood.

Alec was probably academically bright. He won some prizes at St. Bede’s including the Blue Riband in 1929 for general excellence in Discipline, Classwork and Games. That year he also won the Diligence award. Alec was certainly good at sports. He played on the wing in the first XV for St Bedes in 1929 and succeeded in breaking his collarbone – I remember visiting him in Lewisham (later Calvary) Hospital. He was also in the cricket first X1 team in 1929. Alec figured in athletics and was Senior Athletic Champion in 1929. (Write-ups of him are in The Bedeans in those years.) He was also a Prefect in 1929. I have his medals.

Despite these successes Alec might have been a bit sickly because I remember that a holiday was arranged for him to stay briefly with the Bellamy’s in Greymouth. They were undertakers and lived in Chapel St opposite the Greymouth Church.

In 1930 Alec went to the Mt St Mary’s Marist seminary at Greenmeadows in Hawke’s Bay. He was killed in the Chapel there in an earthquake on 03-02-1931. Six other students and two priests also died when the Chapel collapsed in the earthquake. I understand they had just completed a session of a Retreat, which was why they were in the Chapel at that time. The earthquake struck in the morning about 11a.m but owing to the breakdown of the communication system in Hawke’s Bay our parents did not receive the telegram notifying them of his death until about 11.30p.m that evening. The day after he was killed my father came into my room and asked me to stay in bed for a while. In those days houses where a family member had died lowered the blinds as a signal to neighbours. The priest giving the retreat, Fr Kimble, later visited my parents and described the earthquake. He said that earlier that morning he had told Alec that the nuns at St Mary’s in Christchurch had been asking after him.

Alec is buried in the cemetery at Greenmeadows with the other victims of the earthquake from the Chapel. None of our family could attend the funeral partly because there would have been prompt funerals of all the victims of the earthquake, and partly because Napier had been isolated from the rest of the country following the earthquake and travel there was impossible. The grave in Napier was looked after by the students for many years but as time went on it was tended less and less. With the move of the seminary to Auckland about 1998 the grave is probably not now tended (May Devonport says that Tom D. looks after the grave and has spent a lot of money on it). Our mother was later given a pair of rosary beads made from the wood of the Chapel by surviving students. Charlie said that he had the beads after our mother died in 1963 but I have not seen or heard of them since then.

This is Alec’s obituary taken from the [3]

“How the sense of personal loss strikes home as one reviews the brief careers of departed friends and confreres, as one recalls their forms and faces, as their voices faintly echo in the memory! And never more than now, when I think of Alec. His slight but strongly built frame, his quiet, even diffident manner, these externals concealed a forceful personality and a nature as true as gold. A champion in athletics, a first-rate player of all our grandest games, a brilliant student, he leaves a name to recollect with sadness! Yes, but with pride and pleasure, too! It is worth remarking about Alec Devonport, as also about Vincent Carmody, that so successful were they in all branches of sport that they deliberately withdrew from a number of contests in order to allow the trophies to fall to other competitors. The fact needs no comment”.

This reflection is copy and pasted from a word docx. [4]


Sources

  1. Manawatu Standard, Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 55, 4 February 1931
  2. Evening Star, Evening Star, Issue 20713, 9 February 1931
  3. 1931 Bedean (page 14)
  4. Prepared by Frank Devonport 2000/2003/2013
  • "Births, Deaths & Marriages Online", [digital index], New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (http://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz).
    • Birth Registration / 1912/8285 / Name: Devonport, Alexander Roy / Parents: Mary Ann & John Francis
    • Death Registration / 1931/971 / Name: Devonport, Alexander / Aged: 18Y
  • Word docx compiled by his brother, Frank Devonport 2000, 2003, 2013




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