A piece of Napier history —
Margaret Louise Hay was a Napier local – her focus was family and community, and she spent all of her life in the city her father was so involved in rebuilding after the 1931 earthquake. After a long, active life Margaret died in December last year.
Margaret was a keen painter, and at her bequest a collection of her work is to be sold to benefit Creative Arts Napier, which is a registered charity. The team at CAN are thrilled and honoured that Margaret wished to benefit the organisation in this way, so they have decided to make a real event of it, says interim manager Lisa Feyen.
“Come along and view Margaret’s work in the Main Gallery at CAN, 16 Byron St, Napier, this Friday, March 13, 5m-7pm. Enjoy light refreshments and bid on the painting you would like to own. All of the paintings represent a precious slice of Napier’s history. Well known Napier local Brayden Coldicutt has kindly agreed to be the auctioneer for the evening. All welcome.”
Lisa says a small selection of paintings have been reserved at special request for friends of Margaret to purchase and will not feature in the auction.
The exhibition of Margaret’s paintings will be on display in the Main Gallery until Thursday, March 26, when sold works can be collected.
About Margaret by cousin Ruth Monro
Margaret Louise Hay was born in Napier on February 24, 1928, the only daughter of JA Louis Hay, architect, and Margaret (Peggy) Ross Hay (nee McPherson). Her intellectually disabled brother Roddy was 4 years older.
Her first years were full of fun and family outings – picnics, boating adventures – along with entertaining and musical parties at home. Extended family came and went, as did friends from near and far.
In February 1931, the Napier earthquake turned their lives upside down. Margaret was nearly 3. The chimney of their home in Milton Tce collapsed, Peggy was badly injured, and had to have her right leg amputated. Roddy’s disability worsened.
Margaret’s father wasn’t home much after that, being so consumed with the rebuilding of Napier. Consequently it was
Peggy and her sisters (Margaret’s aunts Nan and Jessie) and their mother (‘Granny’ Margaret McPherson) who Margaret knew best while growing up. Aunt Nan lived for some years in the tiny cottage at the back of their home, and Aunt Jessie (who worked in Louis’ office as a stenographer for five years before her marriage) and Uncle John shared Granny’s home in Hastings St.
Margaret attended Napier Central School, and went on to Napier Girls’ High School, where she attained School Certificate (in English, French, history,
by Margaret Hay.
algebra, geometry) and was accredited University Entrance. She was a ‘straight A’ student and a prefect.
On leaving school at the end of 1945, Margaret worked in her father’s office in Hershell St. After his death from asthma in February 1948, Margaret became the family’s sole provider. She was 19.
In 1949, Margaret joined the x-ray department at Napier Hospital, completing correspondence courses in radiography via Melbourne Technical College. From 1963 to 1988 she was clerical assistant at Napier Central School. She was very involved with school life, and sometimes travelled to school camps as a surrogate parent/helper. Apparently her office was extremely untidy, but she could quickly find any record that was requested. She was much loved by staff and students alike.
Margaret’s interest and talent for art came from both sides of her family — her father, and her Aunt Jessie.
During the 1960s Margaret had tuition two evenings a week with Peter Brown, a New Zealand artist who had studied at the Slade in London, and with Augustus John. She was a member of the Napier Art Club for at least 20 years (1970s-90s approximately), attending regularly with her friends Joan Rogers and Thelma Evans. She served on the committee and was an active club member,
INNER Harbour encouraging new painters.
Margaret greatly enjoyed her art, and was always thrilled when one of her paintings sold, ‘not for the money, but because people liked one enough to buy it’. Several letters from her mother to Jessie in the 1970s mention Margaret selling a painting.
She sometimes worked from photographs (as for Inner Harbour) or books, but more often went out to capture land or seascapes. She was also fond of painting fruit and flowers, and her family home and garden in Milton Tce provided options for all seasons.
Nothing was wasted — many of the unframed boards have images on both sides.
Margaret loved singing (soprano) and was a member of Madam Mercer’s Choir in the 1940s. She was a loyal and dedicated member of the Napier Civic Choir from its inception in 1967 until around 2000. For many years she was choir librarian, keeping track of all the scores borrowed by singers.
After her mum died in 1976, Margaret continued to care for her brother, who was by then blind. Roddy’s health declined rapidly after a stroke the following year and he died six weeks later, aged 53.
Suddenly, at 49, Margaret was alone with no family responsibilities. She went straight back to work at Central School, and maintained a regular correspondence with her aunt Jessie and various cousins. She also travelled widely to the UK, Europe, America, the Caribbean, Asia, Fiji, Norfolk Island, Samoa and Australia.
Nature was an abiding interest. In the 80s, she volunteered regularly at the Environment Centre (in the old Gaiety Theatre) and was a member of many conservation organisations such as Greenpeace, Native Forest Action Council, Soil Association and Forest & Bird.
The sea was one of Margaret’s passions, and she went to the beach regularly — one of a quartet of ‘swimming girls’. If the weather was good, she went twice a day.
Margaret did things ‘her way’. At home she was a handywoman — tiling, wallpapering, painting inside and out. She was generous in a myriad of ways, with her time and other resources. She regularly donated to many charities and helped family who she thought had had a ‘rum deal’. She also ensured that her father’s architectural history was reserved, donating many items to the Napier Museum.
Despite dementia in her final years, her stoic strongmindedness was never far away. On making her a fresh cuppa one morning, I asked her if she’d like me to hold the saucer. Her reply: ‘No! That would be giving in — to everything!’
Margaret died in December 2019, aged 91. She had lived in Milton Tce, in the home where she was born, for 90 of those years.