A man who changed his life at 27
David Thomas (Taffy) Francis, 1933-2024
When David Thomas Francis reached the age of 27, he had an epiphany. Since leaving school some 12 years earlier, David had found work on three separate dairy farms in and around his native Wrexham, a town in Northern Wales near the border with Cheshire. At the last of these, he reflected on the return of the owner’s son, freshly qualified from university. David had known him since his youth. Now, the farm's heir had letters after his name. David, by contrast, was still considered “the boy”, the hired help.
"There's got to be something better than this" was the sentiment he thought to himself, if not said aloud to two likeminded friends. Upon discovering an advertisement in the farmers' journal, seeking workers in New Zealand, the question became less rhetorical. David applied, submitted to the required medical examination and ticked the box indicating three months hence as his preferred date of departure. There was no time to lose.
Accepted, David left Wales soon after. One of the ironies of his life was that he retained a huge pride in his native land, reciting tales of youth with such frequency that they became well established folklore for family and friends alike, yet he never returned. Telling his stories, says wife Maureen, was David's way of keeping his connection to Wales alive in his memory.
David Francis was a relentlessly positive man who overcame all manner of professional and health challenges with resilience and faith in his adopted country. To him New Zealand was a land of opportunity. He had little understanding or tolerance for those who complained or suggested otherwise. Enduring setbacks that would have broken other men, he consistently thought of himself as fortunate and lucky to have ended up where he did. In truth, David made his own luck. Hard work and determination bolstered by innate optimism were the secrets of his success.
David Thomas Francis was born 11 August, 1933 in Wrexham, Wales, the third of the three children of Thomas Emlyn Francis and Annie Francis (nee Davies). Thomas had been a coal miner, like his father before him, but in 1918 became a railway engine driver.
The family abode was typical of those in the village, with bedrooms upstairs and the kitchen and living room downstairs. Cooking was done on a coal range. Annie was a strict, frugal woman not given to waste, an attitude that became a necessity with wartime rationing. It was David's job to begin queuing outside the butcher's in the early morning for the allotted 4ozs of meat to be shared among five.
With Wrexham home to an airbase it became subject to German bombing raids. Lights were positioned on top of nearby mountains to disorientate the enemy. One of David's favourite stories involved an occasion when this strategy proved too successful for a local sheep farmer, whose high elevation outhouse received a direct hit. Unable to bill Hitler for the inconvenience, the farmer sought compensation closer to home.
On another occasion, when an enemy aircraft had been successfully downed in a nearby field, David eluded the police cordon long enough to secure a piece of window perspex and a tee junction piece of oil pipe by way of souvenirs, acquisitions that were to cost him "a swift kick on the backside by a size twelve boot".
Although at least one photograph testifies to David's youthful endeavours as a rugby player, as part of the Grove Park School Under-15 side, his sporting memories centred more around football and cricket, played with worn or substitute gear. As a student, David excelled in mathematics but was less confident in English. He sang in the Anglican church choir as a treble until his voice broke.
At age fifteen he left school and began work on a dairy farm, seven miles from his parents’ house. He would traverse the distance every day on his hand-me-down bicycle.
In 1961 David returned from holiday to discover a letter informing him of his departure date for New Zealand: September 7. The only cost involved was that of the fare from Wrexham to London. The rural recruitment scheme paid his passage in exchange for two years’ farm labour.
After six weeks on the Southern Cross David arrived in Wellington. Placed on a dairy farm in Rahotu, Taranaki, he worked for a season. During the winter months he assisted in the rebuilding of a cowshed. When the task was complete, he was given his notice. The owner claimed that he had insufficient funds to continue David's employment. As the family had just come into a large inheritance, this was questionable.
The predicament endangered David's residency status. However, an immigration officer looked favourably upon his case, finding him another position on a farm in Bell Block. It was here, at a dance, that David made the acquaintance of a local teacher, Maureen Grey. Unsure of David's name initially but confident in his nationality, she addressed him playfully as “Evans Evans”. The relationship deepened even as David went on to another farming job in Urenui.
David and Maureen's 1965 engagement coincided with his decision to reject the parochial advice of the Taranaki faithful and seek further rural advancement in the Waikato. Mr & Mrs Wheadon of Hinuera were to prove both instructive and supportive employers and gave David the lasting nickname of “Taffy”, a consequence of their own son also being a David.
David and Maureen were married in 1966. Aspiring toward 50/50 share milking, Maureen continued teaching and David farmed in Manawaru. They welcomed their first child, Emlyn.
After two years and much saving, the Francis family shifted to Te Puke where they continued sharemilking and second son Trefor was born. It was exhausting and potentially demoralising, with production threatened by soldier fly. Aside from the stress of farm work, as a baby Trefor required multiple heart surgeries at Green Lane Hospital, something David and Maureen faced with courage and patience.
Eventually, with the Te Puke owner wanting to invest in the burgeoning kiwifruit industry, David purchased the herd and the family relocated to Cambridge.
David and Maureen's first season as effectively their own boss saw a quarter of the herd lost to Brucellosis at a time when they were still paying it off. Undaunted, they began working for the Walter Dickey Trust in Matamata. David was advised to apply for a ballot farm and was successful. He and Maureen took possession of a converted sheep farm in Arohena, a 172-acre property complete with house and new cow shed. However, the three paddocks still sported an array of tree stumps, a problem when it came to errant cows.
Realising the dream of a farm of his own, David worked long hours, establishing new fencing and water troughs and constantly battled weeds, determined that he would not be defeated. After seven years, when the ballot committee members came to review progress, one was overheard to rhetorically ask "wasn't this the farm we thought we would have to bail out?" David had turned what was a marginal enterprise into a viable dairy unit, setting up his family's financial future and educating his sons in the process.
The triumph was hard won and he was to pay a high price for it. At the age of 52 David suffered a heart attack related to a blood clot in his leg. Henceforth unable to walk distances of great length or to carry anything, he became a house husband whilst Maureen returned to teaching work. The farm was leased to a neighbour, who ran it as a unit separate from his own.
With David's health deteriorating further, in 1996 he and Maureen had little option but to sell the farm and move to Te Awamutu. Efforts to dislodge his blood clot with multiple surgeries having failed, his leg was amputated, first below the knee then, when the clot returned, above the knee.
Through it all, David retained his sense of humour. He proved capable of playing a part in any jokes centred around parrots and piracy.
One of David's pleasures in later life was wood turning, a recreation he enjoyed in an especially built shed on the property. The joining of a woodturners' group was a prelude to his participation in the Te Awamutu Community Menz Shed, where he rejoiced in the position of "tea boy", donating not only his skills and time with the kettle but quietly footing the bill, paying for the groceries out of his own pocket.
David Thomas Francis died April 17, 2024. He is survived by Maureen, his wife of 58 years, sons Emlyn and Trefor, daughter-in-law Hilary and grandchildren Lewys, Isaac and Annie.