We know you: Harold Edmond Humphrey

I found a hand-written poem. Blue, faded fountain ink in beautifully cursored lettering recounted a slice of life on parchment. Folded into perfect quarters tucked inside a 1940’s Whitcombe’s Modern Home Cookery & Electrical Guide, it was rediscovered.

The book once belonged to a one Mrs Humphrey (as proudly scribed in pencil in the inside cover). The poem, from what I can decipher, was named ‘Heroes in New Zealand (Marching Through Georgia)’.

How honoured was I to be holding such a piece of history in my trembling hands! What was the poem about? Who was the writer? What was it doing saved as a keep-sake some 75 years in a well used cook book?

One thing was for certain. I wasn’t about to go to bed restfully without knowing more.  I had the most brilliant night. I was up until ungodly hours. Let me tell you what I found.

Firstly, the poem:

Heroes in New Zealand (Marching through Georgia)

Carry out the piano boys and put it on the deck

Let’s forget we’re sea sick and feeling like a wreck

Soon will be on land again and working for our cheque

But it won’t be in our own New Zealand

Hurrah! Hurrah! Were leaving old Ward B

Hurrah! Hurrah! We’re turning out of C

And when they see the last of us how very pleased they’ll be

But we’ll all meet some day in New Zealand

Do you know the barber came last Sunday afternoon

Do you know he cut the hair of nearly all the men

Perhaps their heads are cooler now their strength as strength of ten

But who would know them in New Zealand?

Hurrah! Hurrah! No barber thanks for me

Hurrah! Hurrah! He takes too much you see

For when I reach my home again across the Southern Sea

My friends shall know me in New Zealand

Big breath.

One rediscovery at a time.

I discovered ‘Marching Through Georgia’ was an old marching song written by Henry Clay Work at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. This ‘sung to the tune of’ fits aptly.

The hardcover cookery book, printed in New Zealand (Invercargill) was the third edition, estimated to have been printed 1940 according to some sources.

The next obvious clue was Mrs Humphrey, the keeper.  Why did she keep the hand-written poem and why was it tucked inside a cook book (along with a great plum sauce recipe, may I add) for 75 years?

One could make an honest assumption that the poem was not in her writing (if the other handwritten recipes also tucked inside was anything to go by). Was it the writing of her father, husband, brother, son?

Gold.  A search of ‘Humphrey’ uncovered The Roll of Honour (1939-1945). It holds the names of seafarers who died during the Second World War as a result of service on New Zealand merchant ships and New Zealanders (New Zealand-born seafarers or those who had lived in New Zealand) known to have lost their lives while sailing under the flags of other countries. It currently contains 148 names, including a Harold Edmond Humphrey.

New Zealander, Harold Edmond Humphrey was a Steward on board Australian Hospital Ship ‘Manunda’.  He died on 19 February 1942, aged 37, in Darwin Australia as a result of a Japanese Air Raid. Husband of Ola Humphrey, Invercargill, NZ.

Oh my. Ola Humphreys. It’s Mrs Humphreys from Invercargill. I held her book and his words in my hands.

Further searching revealed that ‘TSMV Manunda’ an Australian registered and crewed passenger ship which was converted to a hospital ship in 1940 as part of the Australian Merchant Navy. During the war Manunda saw service in both the Middle East and Pacific Campaigns, specifically New Guinea, carrying approximately 20,000 wounded men back to Australia.

19 February 1942

In the first and deadliest attacks, 242 aircraft hit Darwin on the morning of 19 February 1942. Killing at least 235 people and causing immense damage, the attacks made hundreds of people homeless and resulted in the abandonment of Darwin as a major naval base.

The Manunda made 4 trips to the Middle East between November 1940 and September 1941.

HMAHS Manunda was anchored in Darwin Harbour near the merchant ship Zealandia and the oil tanker British Motorist when it was first hit by shrapnel and then a bomb during the first Japanese air attack on Darwin, 19 February 1942. Twelve members of the crew and hospital staff were killed, including Harold Humphrey, and forty-seven others were wounded.

The medical and nursing staff quarters were destroyed, B and C decks were severely damaged and fires started on board. Research shows the bomb went through the skylight of a lounge that was used as a music room on ‘B’ Deck and turned the room into a mass of twisted debris. All that remained of a grand piano were a few strands of twisted wire, and the steel bulkheads and deck where buckled as though made of tin.

Now, with tears building in my eyes, my fingers retraced the words. Piano on the deck. Leaving Ward B.  Southern Seas.

Mr Harold Edmond Humphrey, we know you in New Zealand. Sorry our timing was a bit tardy. Your words didn’t go unnoticed. RIP.

Bless you Ola for keeping a treasured memory alive for 75 years. You may also have passed by now. Your words are in safe hands, I promise.

Any thoughts are most welcome, as to contact from any living ‘Humphrey’ from Invercargill or Dunedin who may be interested.

Post Script: Auckland War Memorial Museum Library have confirmed that Viola or Ola Humphrey lived at 178 Lewis Street (Invercargill), in 1946.  1949 she is registered on the Electoral Roll as a widow. She may have remarried a Tyler. The death notice details that his brother, Mr J B Humphrey was from Tainui, Dunedin.

Source:

• http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/the-merchant-navy/roll-of-honour
• Commonwealth War Graves: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2226574/HUMPHREY,%20HAROLD%20EDMOND
• Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1431332/
• Death advice Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23588, 16 March 1942, Page 4: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP19420316.2.37