War shapes NZ’s future of women
Margaret wore a light-coloured frock and leather-buckled shoes. Her blonde locks almost lapped at her tiny shoulders and the sun gleamed down on the deck of the Ruapehu to put a rosy tint to her cheeks.
The two-year-old’s waist was comfortably gripped by her father’s hand, the other rested over her knees.
Guy George Mace, a Bramerton farmer from Masterton, was now a World War I rifleman. He looked up from under his ‘‘lemon squeezer’’ hat into the camera, his pregnant wife Noeline beside him clutching Margaret’s tiny hand – a netted veil pulled over a ribboned hat onto her face.
It was March 14, 1917, when the growing family spent one moment together, docked in the Dominion before the Ruapehu’s departure for war.
It would be the last time the 21-year-old mother and her daughter would ever see him. Shirley, not yet born, would never know her father.
Guy fought with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and was 32 when he was killed in action on March 29, 1918, on the Somme battlefield.
His death ricocheted through the family, altering forever his wife’s life and that of his two daughters.
Generations of the Mace family, especially its women, have been shaped by war: change was coupled with grief, opportunity linked with loss, but war was overshadowed by love.
Noeline took Margaret from the ship as her husband left for war and returned to the farm. Just one year later she was widowed, with a working property, and two very young children, so their uncle took over.
At that time seeing both women and men leave home for the war held the public’s favour. However, as the years rolled on and the death toll rose, the nation became ‘‘war-weary’’, according to publishing group Te Ara.
A worker shortage put stress on the home front during WWI, with almost 18,000 New Zealand men who died and a further 100,000 overseas.
Women stepped up to the plate, worked, volunteered and campaigned. It was considered temporary at first but it shaped contemporary lives.
They were taught how to class wool at the Masterton Technical School in November 1917 – the first aimed specifically at female workers – to fill vacancies in the wool industry.
Children were encouraged to be cheerful and helpful, ‘‘to ease the worry and sorrow of the mothers and wives of soldiers’’, according to Government website New Zealand History.
Noeline relied on family support after her husband died, and she worked. She raised her children, volunteered, became a humanitarian – at home and overseas – and watched over her friends and neighbours with cooked meals and treats such as scones.
‘‘A lot of the women had to form their own comradeship and work together to try and build a new generation,’’ Margaret’s stepdaughter Elizabeth said.
Margaret remembered how the family made the most of their new home in Eastbourne, a photo of Guy close by. ‘‘I never knew him,’’ she said.
No one spoke of the war but there was no doubt her father’s death took a devastating toll.
It’s been 101 years since he left for the war.
Barbara Brookes’ book A History of New Zealand Women explored colonial society’s rapid change – that it was the country’s women who led the charge to build a successful society, no longer solely defined by traditional family roles.
Aged 21, Margaret was engaged to be married. She’d met her fiance Harry at a private dance, ‘‘we had a plan for our lives – the golden head boy and girl’’.
He died during WWII. It’s still difficult to talk about the moment she found out. Margaret went on to marry, and raised two young girls.