Son of William Williams III
Date of Birth: 9th of December 1893 at Meremere, Ohangai, Hawera. (cert)
Date of Death : 26th of June 1981, at Howick, Auckland 88 yr.
Cremated: at Purewa Crematorium, Auckland.
Married: Muriel {Mona) born Lowry (1892 – 1986) 94 yr 1917 after WW1 in Staines England (record)before moving to NZ in 1919 with child Zetta
Children:
Zetta Gwenith Lumley (previously Sutton)(1919-1993) 74 yr
Harry Keith (1920-1944) 23 yr
Mona “Meryl” Sage (1925-2020) 95 yr
Clive Daniel (1929-2024) 94 yr
Pauline Anne Bolton (1932-2022) 89 yr
Personal Details: Harry was born in the Ohangai district of Taranaki, approximately 20km from Hawera, at a place called Meremere. Meremere Road and Ohangai Road meet at Ohangai.
Harry was the son of William III Williams and Kate (Kitty) Williams (nee Arthur). He was the brother of Ida Constance Williams, Lillian Mary Williams, Griffith William Arthur Williams, Olive Kate Winifred Williams, Amy Rose Williams, and Alfred Edward Williams.
Though born in Taranaki his family was also farming dairy cattle in the Cambridge district as well as Taranaki before and after World War One. The family were part of the J.J. Pattersen-Williams farming enterprise which covered both Cambridge and Taranaki. it seems at some stage before WWI he also resided for a time at Maungakaramea, just south-west of Whangarei in Northland.
Harry was the great, great uncle of Regan Washer. Regan has researched Harry’s life and wrote, “Henry was a particularly nice man. Very modest and full of fun. Barbara Williams remembers Henry farewelling Alfred (his younger brother) saying “Goodbye Alf, good to see you” as he put his hand on Alfred`s head. When he lifted it there was a very ripe large tomato squashed and dripping down over Alfreds face. They were always playing silly jokes like a couple of kids.”
He enlisted in the NZ Army on the 13th of July 1914 at the age of 20 just before the entry of New Zealand and Britain into World War One.
He returned to NZ in Sept 1919. His war activities are here.
He enlisted with the NZ Auckland Mounted Rifles.
He was involved as an Army soldier in Gallipoli and wounded on Chunuk Bair.
He flew aircraft over the Passchendale, the Somme, Ypres and in Egypt.
See also HD Williams Memoires
After returning from the war in September 1919, Henry settled into farming in Tauhei, where he brought up the family.
He and his brother Griff purchased a large block (over 550 acres) and also leased land, including Maori land for growing crops (wheat, oats, barley).
Over time, blocks were sold off as dairy farms.
In 1944 the partnership was split, with each taking control of separate parts of the land.
The 550 acre farm and Homestead was on flat, peat land to the West of Tauhei, off Seifert rd, and over time was developed to include tennis court (prior to the Tauhei Tennis club being formed at the Memorial Hall / School) and pool. The farm remained in the family for many years after being split amongst the children, with Meryl retaining a lot of it for the longest.
After the partnership split with Griff, (1944) he and his son Clive also developed the rolling hills to the East of Tauhei, becoming the Parahiwi farm, which Clive and his wife Elizabeth took over in 1957 and raised their family.
Tauhei History (50 page PDF)
see page 25 for Home Guard
page 27 that states HD built the first air strip in Tauhei in 1951 and later in the 1960’s built the air strip on a high point on the Parahiwi farm .
See also page 46 for HD Williams history.
Henry also bought 100 acres of dairy farm in Morrinsville (page 28 of memoires), where he built a house in 1944 (page 32 of memoires) and lived with some of the family (most of which were by then at secondary school or had left home to travel the world:
Zetta was married 1942, but widowed by 1947, lived at Seifert rd.
Keith went to war 1941 and Died 1944,
Meryl was married 1957,
Clive married 1953 and built a house on Parahiwi,
Pauline married 1959.
They lived there for eighteen years (until around 1966), after which he and Muriel moved to Howick Auckland. The block was eventually consumed by the urban sprawl of Morrinsville, including by the Intermediate school (around 1970) and progressively by housing, in which New Zealand’s infamous Prime Minister (2017-2023) Jacinda Ardern once lived.