Pen portrait details on Hip Fenton

Pen Portrait about Hip

Keen to participate in WWII, he joined the Fleet air Arm

Wife, Ramona, aka Mona, was honoured when the New Plymouth District Council gave her "The Citizens Awards" in November 1994, 'to honour very deserving and unselfish individuals in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their local communities. She served as Treasurer of the Waitara branch of the Maori Women's Welfare League, committee member of the Pukerangiora, Whakapakapaka and Tu Ke Tahi trustees, a life member of the Te Atiawa Kaumatuas, Waitara Darts Association and the Waitara RSA golden Oldies, RSA Ladies Committee

RECOGNITION BY THE NEW PLYMOUTH DISTRICT COUNCIL: Hip received notification that he was to be awarded the Citizens Award for his service to the area, a ceremony that he wanted to be acknowledged 'without anybody knowing'. The whole Waitara whanau turned up

GROWING UP ON THE FARM: A boy who loved to play the bugle and his cousin, one of the Pirikahu boys who lived way down at the Waitara West beach area, could hear him. A little boy who ran away from home often and tried to stay with his Aunty Polly Billy (Polly Pirikahu, maternal aunt); a little boy who hid and slept in the P&T tents covering trenches. A little boy who the long arm of the law of Constable Pouple told him' you have to go home, boy' when the brand new present of a writing pencil was lost and Hip feared a hiding.

The growing up stories he wrote of called Granddad's Tale held in archives at Massey University (Palmerston North).

WORLD WAR II: In England, stationed variously at Portsmouth, under HMS Vincent or HMS Daedelus. Fleet Air Arm wasn't the right spot and Hip enrolled in the Royal New Zealand Army. His enlistment took place in London where his occupation in NZ was Engineer and listed his mother Laura as the next-of-kin. Very reticent to share his war experiences, it is known that Hip was stationed in Egypt. He served as a Don R, number 868, a Dispatch Rider, a veritable at-the-front conveyor of signals, messages from NZHQ to field divisions. Adventures took place in Tunis, Italy, climbing in the Dolomites. He was once attached to his brother Jack's RMT division in Italy. Swimming in Trieste harbour towing a one-man rubber dinghy and doing illegal dives to a miniature German submarine and bringing home the magnifying glass from the periscope which we kids used to light fires with.

ST JOHNS, BEING A ZAMBUCK: In October 1989, the NZ Herald reported the Order of St John ceremony and Fauntleroy Aldershot Fenton, Waitara was made a Serving Brother. Wearing his WWII medals and the coronation ones his chest nearly ran out of room with the new one. The Waitara and Inglewood Press, April 1989, wrote: 'Hip Fenton has been made a serving brother of St John for 26 years of service to the Waitara organisation, and to the community. He has done a lot of work with young people on the gymnastics, swimming and wrestling scene, and is currently a member of St John as well as having an interest in the NZ Transmitting Association.

WRESTLING
Competed as an amateur wrestler during the late 1940's and West Coast, North Island middleweight champion. Dragged his family around NZ pursuing wrestling tournaments so that Dad could referee or judge and that Roger could participate. One of the long-staying moments of pride for Hip was to be an official at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. His issued red jacket and red shirt still stand up to wear after 28 years of constant use. The wattle yellow uniform coat gained when he officiated at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games did not have the same interest value. Further wrestling experience as a leader came in 1969 when he lead the junior wrestling team to the inaugural hands-across-the-sea established by Dr Dale Thomas of Oregon State University. Dr Thomas became a visitor to our homes whenever he came to NZ. Several years later, not withstanding politics, Hip led the NZ wrestling team to the world champs at Joliot in Chicago, Illinois. He was made a life member of the Taranaki Wrestling Association, having served in the provincial capacity as a member of the national body.
CORONATION CONTINGENT: The expectations of Hip was to apply to be a member of the Royal New Zealand Army contingent to Queen Elizabeth's Coronation being held in London in 1953. As he was now serving as a BSM in the West Coast, North Island Territorial Regiment, he sought the opportunity. He once said that his winning talent was to lay a communications line over terrain at Waiouru that gave him the winning margin. The six-month journey took him away from NZ and he saw places in the UK where he had been before, marched in Nova Scotia, Halifax, marched in Baltimore. He was in charge of the guards at St James' Palace, reported in the local paper, his brother Ike was in charge of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Ike, too, was a member of the contingent and he left Korea to participate in the coronation cruise and all the glory of the coronation. Hip was in Pirbright Camp when Prince Philip was inspecting them. Photos of the two brothers featured in the weekly magazines as well.
Their brother, Jack, had marched in the Victory parade after WWII ended often said that their New Zealand march-past was the best out of all of the commonwealth contingents. Either the Free Lance of Weekly news had a profile shot of him standing at attention at Pirbright when Prince Philip was inspecting them. Photos of the two brothers featured in the weekly magazines as well. Their brother, Jack, had marched in the Victory parade after WWII ended.
THE WORKS
Working at 'Bothwicks', Borthwicks, Uncle Tom's, at the works since his return to NZ in 1959, Hip worked on the black squad as a leading hand fitter and turner. He preferred this level of leadership. He had adventures within the works, leading diving teams to check the blocked fat drains which lead into the river. He lead the inaugural search and rescue team and the works' fire engine was often seen getting the battery charged by being driven around the pah sites. The works had the most perfect weighing machines that Hip employed on weighing Roger when Roger was sweating to get into, or maintain his weight division. Going up the Khyber Pass was one of the journeys made into the works. Dad's father, Eugene was a worker in the cannery about 1920's, he is in photos of the workers.
SEARCH AND RESCUE
Search and Rescue played a major part of his non-working life as his amateur radio status, as ZL2ANB, joined SAR missions. The 1975 flood in Waitara was a big affair, and I helped him with typing some message notes, even carried a very, very heavy battery through the flooded streets from Owen Wood's garage which was given for use at the Waitara Memorial Hall before that, too, was evacuated to Waitara Central School. The day the flood was declared was when I was with Dad at his post situated up at the lookout. The NZART were having a competition day and Dad, as usual, wanted the best signal strength. Mountain rescues on Egmont/Taranaki, helicopter rides, mentioned in Dave Rawson's book, 'Rescue'. Dad's first major rescue was with Roy Langman as part of the team in far off Mt Messenger, I think, when a plane crashed in the early 1950's. Roy, an over-the-fence neighbour of Dad's, was a radio ham and hence forth, Dad's curiosity was aroused. The ZC1's were de rigueur for the NZART AEC members. When he was still at high school, Roger was a member of the SAR team to a mission on Mt Messenger. The local shopkeepers, Lash's and Klenners were often phoned during the night for us to go and get goods for Dad to take on the rescue missions. The shopkeepers were always willing to let us run along and get what was needed. All items were paid for fully by Dad - self-provisioning of clothes, gear, food etc, was the norm.
THE EARLY 1960’S
GOKARTING: Stan Jones, who lived up the road, a local mechanic, introduced Hip to this sport. Hip mainly acted as Stan's pusher as he stormed around the grass tracks.
Hip turned up one day and surprised Mona with his purchase of two Twin Mac's. What are twin Mac's? One Mac made a chainsaw, two Macs made a go-kart roar. Dad made his own go-kart and the yellow twin-Mac's often gave him first placing in races around the province. Along with friends, e.g. Ron Flynn, who was a pusher, they attended meetings around the North Island. Hip was a very early member of the Waitara Club, their race meetings being in places like upper Tikorangi, or on Manukorihi bluff area where the Intermediate School now is, or down on the area where the cricket club is before its settled home over the bypass was established.
BOATBUILDING: The long front lawn of 27 Blake Street had one entrance whilst almost two quarters of the section had a deep open drain surrounding it. Hip decided to build Noah's Ark. He subscribed to Seaspray magazine, he bought thin wooden panels for lining the boat, and he bought beams for the keel and wood for the ribs. For years, the section stank of creosote as we climbed through, around and over the skeleton with its huge concrete slab in the keel. One day, Mum, driven by a bit of cheek said to Dad at lunchtime, 'Hip, is it alright if we knock the boat down?' He said yes, and lickety-split, when Dad had gone back to work, I was sent up Blake Street to get Avis and her kids, they'll help. Down the road they came and Avis Tamehana and her children helped the rest of us to de-construct the boat before he got home at five.
TELEVISION: In the very early 1950's Dad had made the home refrigerator and it worked for 30 years. So, when tv crawled into Waitara, and we trawled up to Hine and Charlie Bailey's Pennington Road home to watch snowy tv, or the Sunday movies over the railway line at Uncle Noble Nicholas's, or went downtown on Sunday nights to watch tv through the shop window, we waited for our own. We waited, and waited, and whilst Dad was away on a wrestling trip, Mum hired the tv for the Olympic Games. As soon as the car returned from picking Dad up from the Lepperton train station and drover around Klenner's corner, he saw the aerial. Fire and brimstone. But, Mum won. We'd been waiting since 1962 for Dad to make one.
THE WORKS: It was quite normal for the phone to ring late at night or early morning with a request from the Chief Engineer or the Nighwatchman as to a problem at the works and we would have to wake Dad up from a well-earned sleep. The NZ Government interest in harnessing a market with the emerging EEC made great demands upon his life as the works had to get up to the foreign-imposed standards of hygiene before processed meat or carcasses would be acceptable to the European market. It seemed laughable to me that the markets of Smithfield or meat markets in France still had slovenly hygiene methods grossly inferior to that of the NZ works and they could sell meat within their trading borders! In the very early 1960's, Dad's pay was something like £20 per week, a very big amount of money.
GYMNASTICS EQUIPMENT: Roger was a skilled gymnast and Dad a clever fitter and turner made a set of Roman Rings, horizontal bar, climbing rungs. Roger was expected to excel at these skills and having 20ft Roman Rings was a unique piece of equipment. In later years, as his sports interests concentrated on wrestling, Mum's clothes washing decorated the rungs and bar. The rotary clothesline, which Dad made in the early fifties, had run out of energy. Mind you, that clothesline was often used as the stake for when we tied up the Cowboys when the Cowboys and Indians games were running red hot in the neighourhood and we were quite mean about torturing the Soffe girls.
Over thirty years after their construction, courtesy of 'Uncle Tom's', I saw the gym equipment that Dad made circa 1962, being used by the elite athletes of Duncan Laing's training squad at the Moana Pool, Dunedin. The equipment had first been used at the Bonithon Avenue mineral pools in New Plymouth, when, in 1962/3 period when myself, Karen Tate, Pam Eriwata were Waitara swimmers who trained under Duncan's tutelage in Waitara in the summer and winter in the hot pools. Duncan had moved from working at the works to employment at the Kawaroa Pools in New Plymouth, a job that Uncle Ike Fenton had once held, not in a training capacity though. About 1996, I showed Val the simple equipment which Dad made still being used by Duncan. Talking about swimming, Mona and Hip used to be caretakers of the Waitara Central School swimming pool during the early 1950's and Duncan used to be one of the over-the-fence-after-dark users. When I was 16, I used to drive his Mum and mine into New Plymouth to attend the housie nights, driving Mrs Laing's green Austin A30.
MAORI HISTORY IN NORTH TARANAKI: Changing needs, compounded by redundancy when the works did commit towards closing down their mighty empire, and Hip began exploratory walks around the Karaka Flat, the by-pass, up past the methanol plant, up where he once lived. His forays took in noting what was landing on the quarry lake as he bought ornithological books. His contacting the Dept of Conservation in both New Plymouth and Wellington introduced him to disbelieving bureaucrats. There couldn't possibly be cattle egrets there. He continued to study the lake's inhabitants and got 'official' confirmation that there were, indeed, birds from Australia enjoying a stopover. Whilst in the 'tailings' of the quarry operations, Hip made inspections in the locality of the Mamaku Pa. He found and showed me the site of a small greenstone adze, which he left on temporary loan to the Taranaki Museum. He began to avidly read the local history books; aided by ones I purchased or had free pamphlets of areas of interest. And then a new chapter of his life began. Hip began drawing. I'd said to him to start drawing the birds down at the lake, known as Lake Cowley. He drew a page that showed the Mamaku Flats home of Mum's grandfather, of the garden and the coach and horse used by Rangi Watson. The quote that introduced me to the ERIC Internet search engine was in its infant days in the early days when everything was pre-Mosaic. Oliver Goldsmith's quote was a challenge and it sorely tested American scholars and those NZ librarians based in Auckland. Hip's thoroughness for detail had no boundaries. He tested the theories of others and walked the earth examining the terrain. Crossing into farms that were his childhood playgrounds was sometimes challenging as he sought to prove or disapprove theories.