- Happy and Elizabeth Wheeler and their six children
Edward John Maurice was the last of Harry and Cecil's six children.
“Hap” or “Happy” was so named because as a baby he had this disposition and he retained this positive outlook during his life, despite the setback in his childhood of his parent’s separation. This meant he lived with other families who loved and protected him as their own – the Auckland west coast farming families of the Jonkers and Gregorys and later his two aunts in Gisborne, (Gertrude Wheeler being one) where he attended high school.
Hap wanted to join the Army and go overseas with his friends and brothers but was denied the opportunity supposedly because he was ‘flat footed’ for which he could see no real logic. He instead was assigned to the Home Guard based in Northland – much to his chagrin – as he was fit, strong, willing and able.
Hap’s true vocation was farming and he successfully managed various properties in the Gisborne area (which included droving cattle all the way from Gisborne to Auckland) before meeting and falling in love with his future wife Elizabeth (“Ibby”) who he adored all his life. Although Ibby was born in Apia, Samoa where her Woodward father was Chief Judge, her mother was a Bethell from Auckland’s west coast and it was there that Hap and Ibby’s relationship flourished – and also where they ultimately purchased their beloved farm ‘Wainamu’ at Bethells Beach, from the old Wheeler family friend, Harold Houghton of Muriwai.
Hap was so sociable and loved talking to all of the friends on the way to town or to do an errand. His love of the Kauri, clematis and the wild west coast was part of the legacy his Father Harry had given him. Hap and Ibby’s family still own the farm and it is still much loved, appreciated and enjoyed by their six children and grandchildren and wider extended family, as Ibby and Hap both worked for and wanted.
Happy's dates: 9 Dec 1921,
Died 11 June, 1984, Auckland
- Contributed by Sue Macky, Happy's daughter.
Charles William sixth child of John and Maria
Married his cousing Mary Baylis
ing soon
“Hap” or “Happy” was so named because as a baby he had this disposition and he retained this positive outlook during his life, despite the setback in his childhood of his parent’s separation. This meant he lived with other families who loved and protected him as their own – the Auckland west coast farming families of the Jonkers and Gregorys and later his two aunts in Gisborne, (Gertrude Wheeler being one) where he attended high school.
Hap wanted to join the Army and go overseas with his friends and brothers but was denied the opportunity supposedly because he was ‘flat footed’ for which he could see no real logic. He instead was assigned to the Home Guard based in Northland – much to his chagrin – as he was fit, strong, willing and able.
Hap’s true vocation was farming and he successfully managed various properties in the Gisborne area (which included droving cattle all the way from Gisborne to Auckland) before meeting and falling in love with his future wife Elizabeth (“Ibby”) who he adored all his life. Although Ibby was born in Apia, Samoa where her Woodward father was Chief Judge, her mother was a Bethell from Auckland’s west coast and it was there that Hap and Ibby’s relationship flourished – and also where they ultimately purchased their beloved farm ‘Wainamu’ at Bethells Beach, from the old Wheeler family friend, Harold Houghton of Muriwai.
Hap was so sociable and loved talking to all of the friends on the way to town or to do an errand. His love of the Kauri, clematis and the wild west coast was part of the legacy his Father Harry had given him. Hap and Ibby’s family still own the farm and it is still much loved, appreciated and enjoyed by their six children and grandchildren and wider extended family, as Ibby and Hap both worked for and wanted.
Happy's dates: 9 Dec 1921,
Died 11 June, 1984, Auckland
- Contributed by Sue Macky, Happy's daughter.
Charles William sixth child of John and Maria
Married his cousing Mary Baylis
ing soon