Every year past 17 a bonus after surviving two torpedo attacks
Don Love made it to 94 years of age – which was an achievement given he counted every year beyond his 17th birthday a bonus.
He was just 16 when he signed on to Britain’s Merchant Navy during World War II. On his first assignment, he survived a torpedo attack from a German Junckers JU88 fast bomber on the RMS Cameronia, a troopship on a run to India. Then, in December 1942, on his second assignment, this time on the tramp steamer Lynton Grange, he sailed with the ill-fated 45-ship Convoy ONS154.
It was discovered by two U-boat wolf packs, and the ensuing battle saw 13 freighters sunk, including Don’s ‘‘real tub’’ of a boat, which was torpedoed twice. The Lynton Grange was loaded with munitions, planes and tanks for North Africa, and the captain, knowing they were sitting on a bomb, ordered the crew to abandon ship after the first torpedo strike. The boat exploded and sank in 90 seconds after the second torpedo hit.
Rescued after a day afloat in a lifeboat, Love went on to serve throughout the war, which ended while he was still only 20.
Many years later, in his memoirs, the Waikato builder and Hamilton Old Boys Rugby Club stalwart would admit that his life after convoy ONS154 was not one taken for granted. ‘‘I have always told my family that I could have left this world at the age of 17 years, and all the subsequent years have been a bonus.’’
He stayed on in the merchant marine after the war, and on his 13th trip, this time aboard the MV Port Chalmers in 1946, he sailed direct to New Zealand. Ill with suspected appendicitis, he was put ashore at New Plymouth and later transferred to Wellington Hospital. Deemed unfit for the ship’s return journey, he was paid off and, with £100 in his pocket, decided he would like to see some of New Zealand before returning home.
But he was not on holiday for long. Making his way back to New Plymouth, where he had made some friends, he fronted up to the labour exchange office and accepted a live-in farm job. He learnt to drive, ride horses, play rugby, and drink ‘‘New Zealandstyle’’ (it was the time of the six o’clock swill).
He signed on for the Government Rehabilitation Programme for Returned Servicemen, chose carpentry, and trained by building state houses. In 1951, at the end of the rugby season, he moved to Waiouru, and then to Matamata. Again, once the rugby season was over, he applied for a job with construction company FT Hawkins.
‘‘This was my lucky break – I was asked if I would be interested in a foreman’s job on a new paper mill site then being built at Kinleith.’’ He stayed with Hawkins Construction for 37 years.
During his time with the company, Love was involved as foreman and project manager in the construction of many wellknown Waikato buildings including the Te Awamutu dairy factory; the Hutt Timber Mill at Tokoroa; the Taumarunui Hotel; the Te Rapa dairy factory; the Hamilton Water Treatment plant; the paper mill at Whakatane; the Taharoa Ironsands contract; the Seddon Park grandstand; the Hamilton Central car park; and, just for a change, a multimilliondollar Hospital for the Sisters of the Poor in Pago Pago.
But his life was not all building. He met teacher Margaret Fawcett at a new year dance at Waihi, and they married in 1955. For a while they farmed in the Taumarunui district. They had two daughters, Angela and Maree.
Once the building contracts in the area dried up, the family moved back to Hamilton in the 1960s, where Don joined the Hamilton Old Boys Rugby Club. He was made a life member in 1981.
He gained a reputation at Hawkins for delivering projects on time and often under budget – although at times he had to come up with novel solutions. He once found himself faced with a unionised workforce that refused to walk 50 metres in the rain after morning tea to a covered building site. He arranged for six vans to pick the men up from the lunch rooms and drive them over to the site.
‘‘The funny part was, when it came time for lunch, they ran from the building instead of waiting for the vans to pick them up.’’
In 1988 Hawkins realised Love was three years past the company retirement age, and he retired – for one day.
‘‘I retired at 3pm on the Friday and by 3.30pm I was re-engaged as a consultant at twice the salary that I had been on, with all expenses paid.’’ He went on to work well into his 70s. – By Charles Riddle