Seeking Catherine May Lock born in Taunton, Somerset

Catherine May Lock (79359) RNZAF – Born in Taunton on 20 December 1935

On Monday 16 June 1958, our mother, Margaret Jean Kerr (nee Robbins), travelled by train from London Euston to Glasgow, to meet the New Zealand immigration ship ‘TSS Captain Cook’.

Journeying on the steam train with her that day, was Catherine May Lock, a native of Taunton and who was born there on 20 December 1935.

We do not know for sure, as sadly, Margaret passed away in March 1992, but we believe that our mother might have gotten to know Catherine on the ten hour, overnight train ride, as they were the only two women headed to the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and an entirely new life, in a new land.

The next day, the ship departed Glasgow Docks and slipped through the Clyde and out to the Irish Sea. On the journey aboard the ship, they sailed southwest, past the Azores and across the Atlantic Ocean and onto the Caribbean island of Curacao, close to the coast of Venezuela.

They had a few hours ashore there and spent the time window shopping and seeing the sights, while the crew of the ship, busied themselves with replenishing the fuel and other stores.

On leaving Curacao, they sailed the relatively short distance to Central America and onwards, towards the entrance to the Panama Canal.

Once through, the ship stopped again in Panama City, on the western seaboard and shore leave was again granted, for the roughly 1000 passengers.

The final stop on the way to New Zealand, should have been a rather brief affair, off the Pitcairn Islands, in the Pacific Ocean. However, we understand that the day they arrived off the coast was a Sunday, as was the day spent in Curacao and so the islanders, would not have left their shores.

Finally, after almost six weeks at sea, the ‘TSS Captain Cook’ arrived into the sheltered waters of the harbour, within which sits the nation’s capital, Wellington. The day was Thursday, 24 July1958. 

 

Immigration procedures would no doubt have been completed and some time would have almost certainly been made available to the remaining passengers that were due to meet the overnight-ferry ‘Rangitira’, to Lyttelton Harbour, close to the city of Christchurch, from where I’m writing this.

They arrived and disembarked from the Union Steam Ship Co vessel, in the early hours of the morning, as the sun was just coming up. July in New Zealand, is of course, mid-winter.

There was a special boat-train organised to meet them, for the short ride through the Port Hills and into the city of Christchurch.

Another short stop for breakfast was given, at the old central city railway station, before yet another train journey, further south and across the Canterbury Plains, onwards and towards Dunedin and the nearby Air Force base.

And so, their ex-RAF basic training course was to begin on 25 July 1958 and end with the graduation of the course of twenty young ladies, on 15 October 1958.

Catherine May Lock, taken at RNZAF base Taieri, 15 October 1958

During this time, Catherine and our mother Margaret cemented their friendship and they both seemed to enjoy their time there, at RNZAF base Taieri and they also found it quite an experience, meeting and training with all these new friends and now colleagues.

Our mother was then to complete her ‘Clerk’s Equipment’ course and stayed at Taieri, while Catherine May Lock trained in another role, though we do not know what that was, or if that course was indeed conducted here, or elsewhere.

Once finished, our mother Margaret was posted to base Ohakea, on the southern part of the North Island, for a few months and then eventually she moved further north, to base Te Rapa, in Hamilton.

We do not know what happened to Catherine May Lock, after her time at Taieri, but our 84 year old father who is still very much with us and who was also at Taieri at the time, would dearly like to do the right thing by our mother and pass on copies of the photographs that we have of Catherine and the memories that we children have, that our mother passed onto us.

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