“In 1936, we wore boaters and stiff collars, and, as a boarder, you only went home during the school holidays and not during Easter or other breaks.”
led the school, having survived being wounded and captured during World War I, only to endure the harsh realities of German military hospital treatment. Richards was appointed College Headmaster in 1932. “Richards was strict, but fair and he never smiled,” John says. “I can also remember well-known Master Jackie (AE) Flower, and he taught my father as well.” Of his time as a boarder, he recalls that “winter in Jacobs was cold and that there was one nice room in the whole place and that was the library”. “There was a fire in the library, so that was the place to get warm in the House. In the mornings, it was tough. In winter, we rushed out of bed at six o'clock to get into a big bathtub, with a cold water tap running constantly. You had to quickly leap in and leap out again, and then get dressed. If it wasn’t raining, you went for a walk, exiting through the College gates, crossing the Armagh Street Bridge and into Hagley Park before crossing the bridge into the Botanic Gardens and through the lych gate into Upper. From October to April, you had to get up at 6 o’clock and leap into the swimming pool. It had a permanent artesian spring running through it, so it was cold
and sometimes ice had formed on the top. Then we had prep and breakfast, before classes from 9am to 3pm. “The food wasn’t too bad, but you did get a bit sick of knowing that it would be mince on a Tuesday and fish on a Friday. You could look six months ahead and know what you would be eating or that you would be doing Latin or something at that time on that day.” At College, John kept busy with sports, particularly rugby or shooting, and spent the weekends “biking all over town, including up the Waimak and out to Sumner or up to the Sign of the Takahe”. He also bought – and sold – a dinghy for seven shillings and sixpence, “so that I could go up and down the Wairarapa Stream”. “I moved on to bigger boats when I was older, eventually mooring a yacht in Picton, and having a family bach in Tory Channel in the Marlborough Sounds.” Of his school memories, John enjoyed being a member of the shooting eight and representing College in that capacity at the unveiling of the War Memorial next to Christ Church Cathedral in the Square in 1937. While John liked Science and Geography, he always felt “that school was not for me” and
hankered after his life in the country.
“I left College in 1938. My father wanted me to stay for another year, chiefly because I would have been in the 1st XV. I had already had a few games. I also missed out on my Colours for shooting. You had to shoot for The Press Shield against Christchurch Boys’ High School to get your Colours, and that year there was measles or chickenpox or something, and they did not hold the shield event. However, I wanted to be out in the country and, at age 17, I returned to my family to help farm sheep and cattle.” However, World War II was gathering momentum and John volunteered for the New Zealand Army in 1940. “Initially, it was part-time. I was 19 and you did not go overseas until you were 21. In January 1942, I was called up for full-time training and preparing to defend infrastructure in case the Japanese landed in New Zealand.” At the start of 1943, Corporal John Rutherford was sent to New Caledonia, before moving to the Treasury Islands in the Solomon Islands to replace losses in the Pacific campaign. “While we patrolled around the area, we were always prepared
96
CONNECTION
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs