James Norman Jansen (1896 - 1956)

Born 30 Dec 1896 in Bunnythorpe, Manawatu, New Zealand

Ancestors

Husband of Mabel Grace (Allwright) Jansen — married 21 Aug 1918 in Methodist Church Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand

Husband of Catherine Stuart (Baxter) Jansen — married 23 May 1935 in Registry Office Auckland

Descendants

Died 31 Dec 1956 at age 60 in Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Catherine Currie [send private message]

Biography

Norman Aged 4 years.

He came to Auckland New Zealand with his family in 1908 where he completed his secondary education at Seddon Memorial Technical College in Rutland St. His two older brothers Gordon and Bert also attended Seddon Memorial Tech, and all three brothers studied engineering. The family lived at 4 Claude Rd Epsom.

After his schooling Norman considered a career in banking, and began working at the Bank of New Zealand as a clerk. After handing in half a crown to his senior which Norm found on the floor that he discovered the bank had planted as an honesty test. Norm felt highly insulted that his character had been questioned although such tests were a common practice, and he promptly left their service to work for the transport board as an armature winder. He worked all of his adult life on the trams at the Tramways workshop in Manukau Rd, Epsom and was there for 41 yrs and 9 mnths until he became terminally ill. Norm worked on the last tram prior to the planned closure of the tramways and was included in a group photograph with it at the workshop. The last tram ran on the 29th of Dec 1956 and by some coincidence Norm drew his last breath just 2 days later. It seemed almost as if his life's purpose was to keep the trams running. After his death the transport board gave his widow 200 pounds in recognition of Norm’s long service. Although State advances should have been responsible for maintaining the state house that Kate and Norm rented it had not had any work or decorating carried out on it for at least 18 years and Kate used this money to wall paper and spruce up the house.

Norm was of age at the height of the Great War and he told his wife Kate that he had volunteered his service to go off to fight as his two brothers George and Bert had. However he was not accepted due to his “gammy leg” which she had always known him to have and caused him to walk awkwardly. His reasons for telling her this have gone with him to his grave. Perhaps it was pride or the stigma of being labelled a coward. As newspaper archives have revealed that Norm did not volunteer at all, but was conscripted and when called up his manager Mr J Walklate objected to him going and appealed to the military services board in Auckland on the 18 Oct 1917 to have Norm exempt from service due to the valuable nature of his work at the Tramways, stating it would take 5 years to train another man to replace him and it would mean the curtailment of the tramways service. The board adjourned his case indefinitely, and Norm remained at home keeping the trams running. In newspapers articles up into the 1920s Norm was playing rugby and participating in athletics sporting events with the Tramways in which he was winning and placing 2nd and 3rd. He did not seem to have any restriction of a "gammy leg" at all. So now it is not known when or how his leg was actually injured, as what his daughter thought all these years about him injuring it in a hockey accident as a youth does not seem to be the case at all.

In August 1918 Norman Married Mabel Grace Allwright at the Methodist Church in Epsom. Mabel and Norm settled in the Auckland suburbs. In 1919 they were living in Rangiatea Rd, Epsom. Their first child, a baby girl arrived unexpectedly while they were holidaying in February 1920 in Taihape, New Zealand. Norman and Mabel separated twice during their marriage, the second time they parted in 1928 and remained apart for several years with Mabel raising their daughter Ces. The couple reconciled 12 – 18 months months prior to Mabel's death on the 29th of January 1934. Mabel had developed a duodenal ulcer. She was taken from her home to Auckland hospital where she underwent gastroenterastomy surgery the usual treatment for a perforated ulcer. However Mabel passed away due to complications, leaving Norm to raise their daughter Ces aged 13 and baby Robert aged just 3 mnths on his own.

At the time of Graces death they were renting a house at 64 Pah rd. This is where Norm lived with his new wife Catherine Baxter (Kate) whom he Married 16 months later, until they moved into a state house at 8 Owairaka Ave, Mt Albert in the 1940s.

8 Owairaka Ave Mt Albert

When Norm and Kate first moved to Owairaka Ave their new neighbours thought “Oh that poor woman! Her husband is staggering home drunk every evening.” Until they mentioned it to Kate and realised that Norm always walked that way because of his "gammy leg".

In 1946 Kate became unwell and underwent major surgery spending 3 months in Auckland hospital. Although Norm had the assistance of the neighbour in looking after the children after school. It was a worrying time for him, and a time that put his organisational skills to the test as he had to work and run the house including getting the children ready for the day, and of course then there was also visiting Kate in hospital. Photos snapped by street photographers of Norm walking up to the hospital with the children to visit Kate show just how organised he was. he managed to pick flowers from the garden and even put a tie on Bob and a ribbon in Cynthia's hair! Kate took months to recuperate when she returned home and Norm arranged a house keeper to help her.

The state house at 8 Owairaka Ave Mt Albert had a big ¼ acre section. Norm had the whole of the section in garden except for a strip which he mowed with a hand mower for his son bob to play cricket on. Norm grew rows and rows of veges that stretched the length of the section providing everything required to feed the family except for fruit. He grew Kumara, cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, peas, beans, beefsteak and potantate tomatoes. Beetroot would be grown in abundance to be bottled for use out of season as were onions which were strung up and stored underneath the house and potatoes were bagged up in large sacks. He enjoyed gardening and grew a variety of flowers, he always had a lovely lot of asters and huge fragrant stocks, he also grew blue campanulas, bunnies and had daisies on the bank. Carnations were Norms favourite flowers and without fail grew a fine row of carnations of many different colours including variegated ones of which he was partial at the end of the vege garden. Norm wore a carnation in his button hole whenever he went out. One of his favourite carnations was a mauve variety named Maori Chief. At bowls he was quite popular with the ladies as he would give his button hole to one of them to take home and enjoy before left for the evening. He allowed his daughter Cynthia grow a few carnations beside the chimney when she was a young girl. Bob said the soil was no good there and they would never grow but they did. Cynthia suspects that her father tended them without her knowledge to ensure she was successful with them. So Norm was not quite as hard as you might think. He was a gentleman and could be a softie at a times too. Norm always used Solvol soap a grey coloured pumice soap to clean up his dirty hands after he had been working in the garden and would sit on the steps with a beer and a smoke after a busy day of gardening. Norm rolled his own cigarettes with blue Zig Zag papers, which he was very particular about as he preferred the finer blue papers to the yellow ones. He smoked Havelock Aromatic tobacco and ensured 1 packet lasted him a week. Norm’s habit was not only confined to outdoors he also sat and rolled cigarettes at the dining table and smoked inside the house. He was the master of his home and would do what he wished.

Norm rode his push bike to get around the community. In Auckland bikes were required to be registered from 1887 with the Auckland City Council and had to display a number. According to the council records Norms bike was registered in 1916 entry number 11639 and it was described as a safety bicycle. There is no council record of his bicycle being upgraded and I am unclear as to whether there was a requirement for him to inform them of any change. Norm did not drive or own a car. He did not see a need to, as he felt privileged to travel on the trams free of charge since he worked for the tramways. However his wife and daughter had to pay the usual undiscounted fare. He used to take the tram at 6.00am to Symonds St and take another to Epsom to get to work each day. He always went out with a hat on and carried a large brown leather Gladstone bag everywhere he went, goodness knows what was in it besides his lunch. You weren’t dressed without your hat you know. He kept his good hat for going out only which he brushed meticulously and put up in a hat box and had an old favourite green fishing hat.

Norm’s job paid 5 pounds per week in the 1950s. The rent for the state house at Owairaka Ave was 1 pound 10 shillings leaving 3 pounds and 10 shillings to feed and clothe the family including amenities such as power. They did not have a phone. Kate supplemented the family income with part time work house keeping for an Auckland Jeweller in the early years of their marriage, and the once Cynthia started school Kate worked at a cardboard box factory in Exmouth St, Eden Terrace for some years where she cleaned the toilets and made the teas and lunches.

Norm would ride his bike to go fishing, returning home with a heavy sack tied to the back laden with a bountiful catch usually huge snapper. The snapper he caught was the most beautiful snapper and so big that one fillet was bigger than the pan it was cooked in. He also brought home sacks of crayfish that escaped the sack and crawled around the kitchen floor before being plunged to their peril in the copper. Now that sure is fresh food when you have to catch it again after you have already caught it! Norm fished regularly with a rod and he also set nets rowing his dinghy out into the Manukau Harbour. He often went fishing and shooting with his mate Snowy Baker who he worked with. The family went to Snowy’s a bachelor who lived with his spinster sister in the home of their late parents somewhere out Hillsborough way for dinner on occasion.

Norm also fished and went duck shooting with his good friend Mr Hill who lived in Hillsborough. Once Norm brought home an unusual large grey bird that he accidentally shot. His daughter Cynthia thinks it was a Godwit, It was taken to the Auckland Museum where it was taxidermied and displayed where the family visited to view it. Norm regularly visited his brother Bert in Rotorua who was a train driver and part time ranger. Bert was a keen fisherman and shooter, and they enjoyed trout fishing together. Of course Norm made his own fishing flys. From time to time Bert would put 3 or 4 ducks at a time on the train to Auckland and Norm would bring them home on the tram from the city after work. It was quite usual to have ducks hanging from the wringer of the washing machine in the wash house.

Norm was known to be very tight with his money, and although a pair of socks didn’t cost that much he insisted that Kate darn his socks until there was nothing but darn left in them! He always said “you can’t throw those away yet there’s still room for another darn”. He would never personally purchase gifts and he thought cards were just a money making racket. Kate did however purchase small inexpensive gifts for the children for Christmas and birthdays, and Norm picked Kate flowers grown by his own hand with tender love and care. So it was a memorable occurrence when he gave his daughter a pound note when she was aged 14 to go into town to purchase a red leather shoulder bag that she had been admiring which cost 19 and 11 pence and she even got to keep the change!

Norm enjoyed to bet on the horses. As Norm and Kate never had a phone Norm would regularly walk up the road to the public phone box and ring the bookie to place half crown bets. In 1952 His daughter Ces left her husband and cane to live with Norm and Kate with her 3 year daughter Christine for several months before moving to a house keeping job on a farm. This put a strain on finances and Norm did not give Kate any extra money in the weekly house keeping to feed the extra 2 mouths, but he still placed his bets with the book maker.

Norm seldom went out other than going to work, fishing, shooting or to play bowls. He never went away anywhere with the family, Kate would take the children to visit and holiday with family leaving Norm at home. However his daughter Cynthia does remember going on large picnics with a lot of people, she thinks that they were Transport Board picnics as she remembers Mr and Mrs Burr being there with their large family of unkempt children wearing discoloured nappies. Mr Burr used to clean the trams.

Norman played indoor bowls at St Enochs Presbyterian church, Wesley and also at the transport board rooms in Albert St Auckland central when Cynthia turned 14 yrs he would take her to play with him at the transport Board rooms at night. Norm taught Cynthia to play bowls by placing a cigarette paper on the mat for her to aim at to draw her bowl in to the kitty. This proved to be an effective method. Norm and Kate would team up together with Ivy and Jack Tetley, playing as a team in open tournaments. Norman was the skip and Kate the lead although she usually played third on club nights. There was a time when Norman was playing off in a tournament and didn’t get home until 2 am. He put his prize in the door ahead of him to try to make peace with Kate, however was scolded. He had won a heavy painted ornament of a Scotch terrier dog. Kate loathed it but kept it as a reminder of her authority and used it as a door stop for many years.

Norman discouraged his wife Kate’s large family from visiting although she visited them often. Unbeknown to Norm he had already encountered one of Kate’s family members many years prior to their marriage when he began working at the bank. His boss was Kate's Uncle Robert Baxter. There were however visits from a few of his wife’s family and he did take Kate's nephew Gordon Laing out fishing occasionally. Gordon affectionately called Norm “old Norky” due to his peculiar gait, lack of height and balding head. Norm used to say “grass doesn’t grow on busy streets”

Norm was a keen sportsman in his youth playing hokey and rugby. As a father he encourage his son in sport and was enthusiastically involved with amateur Athletics at Gribblehurst Park in Sandringham, Auckland during the 1950s and trained Bob who was a talented mid to long distance runner. He was also involved with another notable young Auckland based sportsman very early on in his career. Norm and Bob clashed and Bob gave up the sport although he was preforming better than others who went on to Olympic fame.

Late in 1956 Norm became ill with cancer of the liver. Kate nursed him at home and he was confined to bed. Norm’s condition rapidly declined and he was taken to Auckland Hospital by ambulance where he passed away on New Years Eve. A service was held to celebrate Norms life at the chapel of W H Tongue and Sons on the afternoon of the 2nd of January 1957 and he was interred at Waikaraka Cemetery area 2 block W plot 31 with his parents and his 1st wife. Although Kate did not wish for her beloved husband to lay with his first wife for all eternity this was the only option she could afford at the time, with the plot having being previously purchased by Norm’s family. Kate never made it a priority to have her husband’s name included on the headstone of the Jansen family grave, however it was always important to Cynthia that her father have a memorial, and when the concrete family grave surround began to crumble badly, Cynthia had it removed for safety and easy maintenance in 2013 and the fallen headstone repined with Norms name and details added to it.

Jansen family headstone Waikaraka Cemetery

Sources:

Birth- NZ Registration Dept Internal Affairs NZ 1897/14661

Marriage- NZ Registration Mable Grace Allwright 1918/4309 Dept internal Affairs

Marriage- NZ Registration Catherine Baxter 1935/9371 Dept Internal Affairs

Death- NZ Registration James Norman Jansen 1957/20147 Dept Internal Affairs. Death notice NZ Herald 2 Jan 1957

Death/Burial-Waikaraka Cemetery Records http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll

Death notice Auckland Star 29 Jan 1934

Obituary New Zealand Herald 21 August 1941 Page 12NZ Electoral Rolls

New Zealand Herald 31 January 1934, Page 1

New Zealand Herald 18 October 1917, Page 6

Auckland Star 17 October 1917 Page 6

Marriage notice Auckland Star 30 Aug 1918 Page 8

Evening Post 8 September 1920 Page 4

Auckland City Council Bicycle Registers Database 1910-1923 - http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/CityArchives/FamilyHistory/ACC043/searchbicycleregister.htm

Memories of Gordon Laing, Cynthia Jansen, Cecelie Jansen