England - New Zealand - Australia

1952 - 2001

Click on small pictures to enlarge.

I have the almost impossible task to summarize the next 49 years of my life into the next section of this “opus”, especially as I now have to tell you of the happenings of not just me, but my wife, our two children and there ought to be some mention of our seven grandchildren, the three countries we lived in and many changes in our lifestyle.

 

But let’s go,  let’s start.

 

We honeymooned for one week in Devon and Cornwall renting a cheap little Ford and returned to our basement flat in Royston Road, Richmond, Surrey. Joy was going to continue teaching and earning £12 per week, which was to be most welcome to augment my £10 per week I earned in the company formed by my father and his friend, also from Hungary. Our offices were in Piccadilly Circus, which sounds better than it was.

A few weeks after our wedding, something was missing from our life and Joy and I visited our Polish doctor. He heard our story and without further ado he triumphantly and loudly declared: “I know what’s wrong with you, you are pregnant, that’s wrong with you!” We tried to reassure him, that we don’t regard this a problem and he told us to book Joy into the Queen Charlotte hospital.

Nine months and ten days after our wedding our daughter was born at 7:30 pm. which meant that I missed out on the evening visiting time. So I had a drink and tried to bury my sorrow at having had a daughter. It took me just two shots of brandy before I was quite happy and accepted the fact that we shall have a daughter. Nothing like that ever happened in our family since my mother was born..

Next day, holding a bunch of flowers, I waited in the staircase of the hospital for the bell, when all the fathers were allowed to swarm upstairs to visit wives and babes. I rushed to see mine and there she was, a beautiful smiling wife, more beautiful than ever, but no baby. Eventually, I was told to see the sister, who wanted to talk to me.

It was in her room that I finally met my daughter. The sister explained to me that an ambulance will take the baby to another hospital for a check up and treatment, since she has talopes. Not knowing what that is, I asked and it turned out to be “club foot”. It certainly did not make me very happy although when I was shown her feet, my untrained eye could see nothing wrong.

By next day her little leg was in plaster with a metal splint. This was changed at periods for the next 18 months at considerable pain to little Jane, whose suffering was matched with our own anguish. Yet we were happy to know that the inventor of this method, Dr Dennis Brown, treated her and while we could not speak to this illustrious gentleman, it seemed that all is well, or at least that is what he suggested to the many medical students who looked on as our daughter stood on a chair and was being exhibited[1].

 

Of course, Joy has ceased to be contributing to the family finances since quite early in her pregnancy and being employed in a family concern, my income was less than satisfactory. Nevertheless, we managed and when a better flat came available in the same building of flats where my parents lived, we moved in. Not being furnished we had to buy furniture and we bought the cheapest, the least and at the lowest weekly hire purchase repayments. There were no credit cards those days, the only cards being ration cards, which weren’t cards, but books and required to buy food, clothing, etc. It was 1953, only 8 years after the end of the war and even if rationing was forgotten in Germany, this was not so in England. Oh well, serves them right for winning the war!

 

During the course of my business I visited Germany for a trade fair and while I was away Jane managed to get close to the electric fire and was severely burned on her face and neck. Poor Joy had to cope on her own.

 

It was sometime in January 1955 that Joy had an idea. She was sitting in the bathtub after a strenuous day with me sitting beside when she explained her idea, according to which, if we are to visit her parents in New Zealand in the near future, we ought to start thinking of increasing our family. I was quite willing and all I asked if I should join her in the bath or wait until she gets out. We decided on the latter and on 1^st November 1955 we were rewarded by a baby boy.

 

Unfortunately, his arrival caused Joy to have a cyst in her breast, which had to be operated. A small army of volunteer and paid helpers had to be engaged to look after the children with the result that the little fellow was overfed and had to be put on a slimming diet.

 

In October 1956 we boarded the MV Tamaroa in Liverpool for our trip to New Zealand. We paid £200 for our cabin below the waterline, while migrants paid just £10 and stayed on the promenade deck. We intended to stay until March 957 and then fly back via USA, where I was exporting grain moisture test equipment from my London company.

 

It was a lousy passage, via the Panama Canal and we were relieved to be landing in Wellington after storms, typhoons, a cook, who was knifed and our ship steaming in the wrong direction to save someone on another ship who committed suicide.

 

In Wellington the local relations greeted us and several more relations turned up at the railway station later that day, to say hello to Joy, and inspect me, the exotic foreigner (in 1957 all foreigners in NZ were) and the children she acquired during her travels.

 

We traveled with 28 pieces of luggage, which included 2 prams and since the train was to stop for just 1 minute at Pukekohe, we practiced with the guard on how we are going to manage unloading both the luggage and the children, only one of which could walk at that stage.

 

When the train stopped, we went into the routine. Joy pointed out her parents standing on the platform, the guard started to throw things onto the platform, Joy was holding on to the girl while carrying a case and I jumped down carrying our baby boy, rushed to my mother-in-law and according to plan, wanted to hand him over to her.

 

However, we did not count on her and she refused to accept the child, saying: “We better wait until he knows me better.” This was not a good idea as I was wanted to assist in unloading the prams and the luggage. Finally I got rid of him to my father-in-law who was more observant and sensitive to the situation.

 

They drove us back to another relation’s home, where some 20 or so of the clan was assembled to welcome us.[2] And welcome they did and now some 45 years later, they are still as wonderfully welcoming me in their family as they ever were.

 

I must add here that my in-laws were wonderful people, whom I loved as much as if they would have been my own. My mother-in-law was a well educated former school teacher, who played and taught the piano, until she took up the cello, so as not to compete with her students. She also became interested in the history of her pioneering family and researched it all from the small New Zealand village of Te Kauwhata. She was proud of her ancestors, who included such differing notables as one of the founders of the Bank of England and a French Huguenot clergyman. She came from a big family, all of whom were well educated and became successful in their field.

 

My father in law was different. He should have been a Scotsman, although there was a lot of Irish blood and a mischievous sense of fun. His name was Cheviot Dundee Marshall[3]! He lost his mother early and he was never close to his step-mother. He falsified his father’s signature, which was never forgiven, so that he could join the Army and he saw action in the Middle East, Gallipoli and France.   Eventually he left Dunedin in the South and came to work on the railways in the North Island, in Te Kauwhata. Eventually he got himself a job into the village store, but left after a while to make a living as a salesman in Auckland, but spent most of his spare time punting at the local racecourse, an occupation he found more profitable.

 

When his former boss in Te Kauwhata became sick, they started to search for him and people were standing outside the entrances of the race course, until they found him and he was invited to take up his previous job. He stayed there for the next 35 years and became part owner of the business and a local identity. That he came back to Te Kauwhata from Auckland has something to do with the young schoolteacher, whose name was Vera Paterson. They married in 1925.

 

He adored and was always impressed by his wife and he was a good and tolerant father. His two daughters had excellent and an expensive education he could hardly afford. One of them (Joy) became a high school teacher, the other an artist, while her twin brother became a veterinarian.

 

While my mum-in-law came from a large North Island family, my father in law had just two siblings. Nevertheless, Joy had 24 first cousins, whereas I only had 1 cousin and 2 half cousins, all living in Budapest.

 

We stayed in Te Kauwhata with Joy’s parents. They had a big house and I even had a small office provided for me, where I spent my days typing away. Every now and then I visited Auckland, where I had some business to conduct. My father-in-law was wondering what kind of a guy his daughter married since I was not a gardener nor was I over enthusiastic on discussing sheep farming or horse breeding.  It was quite a few years later when he saw that I was the respected boss of a large lawn mower factory in Sydney and a good husband and father, that he accepted me and from then on, he sung my praises, - behind my back, of course.

 

My relationship with my mother-in-law was always excellent. She thought that having a foreigner in the family was interesting and she was proud of the fact that her daughter married someone other than a Kiwi farmer. She could discuss matters of mutual interest, such as music, the theater and operas and while I could not play music, I appreciated her playing the piano and cello. Not at the same time!  I found her a delightful lady and a poor cook. When in later years we went to New Zealand and stayed with her parents, a condition of my going was that Joy will cook at least 3 times a week.

 

In January 1957 I went to the Wellington and Christchurch on a business trip and from there to Sydney, where I stayed with relations and visited my agents there and Melbourne and Adelaide. I was most impressed with Australia. Quite apart that the sun shone and one could see the stars in the night sky and it did not drizzle every day, it was a vibrant city and I believed, the country of the future. It was the place, where I wanted my children to grow up and where I felt that I could achieve independence and live happily. I wrote to Joy and asked if she wants to settle here. Of course she wanted to and so I went back to NZ to collect her and arrange for the children to stay there until we sorted out our living conditions in Australia.

 

We arrived on board the Wanganella on 8^th April, stayed in a flea ridden boarding house. Next day I bought a brand new Morris Minor from a York Street showroom (on the never-never, of course) and started to look for somewhere to live. We did not need to look too much as a cousin of mine asked me to assist him by renting a place for his large family, who, having escaped from Hungary after the 1956 revolution were coming from Vienna. He found a house and asked me to rent it in my name and suggested that may be I would like to stay there until we found another place.

 

So on the 18^th April we moved into the house, with two wicker chairs and one mattress propped up on 8 house bricks and as I am writing this 44 years later, we are still there. My cousin did not need the house after all and so we stayed there, having bought the house after a year of renting it. Admittedly, we added to the house during the past years, but basically it has changed very little.

 

Our children arrived on 5^th May 1957, my 31^st birthday. One of them was not yet 4 and the boy just 18 months old and they flew across the Tasman on their own, being looked after by an airhostess. It was quite a thing for them to fly the six hour trip alone and the airline was quite proud of having so smoothly brought them to us. There were a large number of my relations at the airport when they arrived, so much so that Jane got fright and wanted to go back to Grandma to New Ezeland (her way of calling the country she just came from) immediately.

 

And so our life in Australia began.

 

I intend to sketch my efforts to make a living first, before I give details about the happenings of the rest of my family.

 

A few days later, within a time frame of 2 hours I received 3 job offers, one from New Holland, the agricultural machinery manufacturers, the other from my land developer cousin and the third from Nock and Kirby’s a hardware oriented retail store in the City. Seeing that they offered the lowest salary in an area I had no previous experience and in fact no knowledge of the retail trade, I chose it and started work next Monday. On that day I also opened an account with the Bank of New South Wales and made the acquaintance of the accountant there, who become my best friend until he passed away some 20 years later, while his wife became the close friend of my wife, a friendship we are still happily practice.

 

When in 1960 I first went to England, I visited a friend there, who asked me what I enjoy in Australia best. I told him, that I love the friendships I made and the totally unspoiled people there. As an example I told him, that many a Sunday, after mowing the lawn, a friend, by then a bank manager, arrives in his oft repaired shorts and wearing an old T-shirt, bringing a few bottles of beer, which we than consume on the steps of my home. This evoked the memorable sentence: “A better reason for not staying in Australia, I cannot imagine.” Needless to say this chap has never left his little flat in the 5 story building and probably still lives there. And he was not even an Englishman, just a refugee from Austria.

 

I was progressing well as a retailer and must have been appreciated because I received several promotions, until I wanted to improve myself and answered an advertisement to manage a television factory. After a while I got the job, only to be told that I will be manager of a lawnmower factory, recently taken over in secret by the largest mower concern. After a while my company, Pace Mowers, became the No. 2 company in Australia and I became its Managing Director. I also got involved in importing engines from USA and in May 1960 went there and subsequently visited my parents in London.

 

During the next 7 years I went overseas several times, including a trip to England in 1961, when with an executive of the “competing” mower company we established their UK office. In the course of my work with Pace I often had to be in other States of Australia and in fact the frequent trips to Melbourne, Brisbane, etc. were quite exhausting for me and also for Joy, who had to run the household and look after the children single handedly. Never a complaint from her, but when it was decided to combine the two lawn mower organizations and I was invited to become the Export Director, I was not prepared to accept long overseas trips and decided to resign instead.

 

Those were the days of full employment and a shortage of managers, it was not difficult to find another position and I became General Manager of large import company, marketing a huge range of engineering products. I cannot say that I enjoyed this position, especially as after a couple of years my immediate boss retired and his position was filled by a man from the diplomatic service, with whom I had many non-diplomatic hassles due to my not being able to accept his miniscule understanding of commercial matters. The end result could only cause my demise and thus, while in hospital with appendicitis, I lost my job.

 

Hardly was I capable of walking when I was interviewed by an American fellow and was offered the position of Managing Director of their Australian organization.  I was told that the company made very little profit, but was surprised to find that in actual fact it lost $3 million, equivalent to about $25-30 million in 2001.  With considerable effort and help from my staff we managed to make a profit of $200,000 within two years, but the constant bickering with my President and the frequent trips to Pittsburgh for meetings which were of little interest to me or the Australian operation caused me to start looking for other pastures. There were many other reasons for me to do so, such as the Americans trying to sell “my” company to my competitors without my knowledge. I am afraid this US conglomerate was not the most ethical of companies and was the subject of many interesting magazine articles from Time to the New York Financial Times, - never showing my parent company in a favorable light.

 

For my next trick, I went into partnership with a manufacturing company and designed an office appliance to make coffee, tea, etc. The secret of success was the distribution of ingredients. I was at the point of going into large scale manufacture, when I was invited to meet the Chairman of a large textile organization and was offered the managing directorship of two of their textile mills. As my knowledge of textiles was entirely nil, I refused and kept refusing until the ever increasing financial rewards became irresistible. So I sold my portion of the “Teabreak” company to my partners for the promise of payment by royalties over a period of 10 years and became the CEO of a large textile mill.

 

I joined in the first week of January 1968 and by mid January it was clear to me that I got myself into a mess. Ever since, I realize that if a company needs to acquire its chief from outside, it is a company not worth joining. Within 6 months I was asked by my Chairman to visit Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan and I left a Sunday morning. Next morning in Hong Kong I received a call from my secretary, reporting that people are going through my papers in my office and later that day I was told that they are looking into my expenses and whether I paid for my textile purchases. I could not care less, because I knew that I had not claimed a single expense during my time with the company and I paid for any purchases I made with my personal cheque.

 

I did my work as fast as I could, spending just 12 hours in Taipei and on my return confronted my Chairman, a little guy, whom I suspected by then to be a criminal, importing and distributing drugs, etc. and including later on the almost certain murder of one of his opponents, a matter in which he would have been taken to task, had he not died before investigations were completed. Within blinking an eyelid, he told me that he was looking for some reason he can sack me, but while he has plenty of evidence of my sins and activities, he is prepared to pay me $20,000 in addition to my salary, etc. if I would please resign. I did so immediately and considered myself lucky to escape this gangster. In actual fact, I never received his 20,000 and had to threaten to sue for my entitlements, which I would not have done, preferring my safety to his money.

 

Why did he do this? The companies I managed were recently taken over by his original public company at an inflated price, since the companies were not making any money, yet they were shown to be profitable. Ostensibly to save the company’s cash, it was he who purchased the real estate at a very reduced price.  Having gone on similar take over adventures, during which time he bought substantial amounts of real estate, he than commenced negotiations to sell his shares in his company to a long established Australian public company, whose chairman he supplied with girls from his stable of call girls. After he sold his own shares, the publicly held shares were also taken over and he knew that the value of the assets and the profitability of his various companies will be audited by the incoming accountants. At this stage he needed someone to blame and he was able to say that he made a mistake in selecting an agricultural engineer for the CEO of a textile mill. Indeed, this was described in the annual report. By that time the lady opposing him was missing and I was not interested in becoming another missing person being dissolved in an acid bath.

 

Once again I decided to start my own company and never had I made a bigger mistake. Actually, I saw an advert for a small manufacturing business, making statues. Yes, statues of such things as the Venus of Milo, Rodin’s Kiss and Michaelangelo’s Pieta. Hard to believe, but I fell for the pitch of the man selling it and for the next 6 years I was too proud to give up. I spent my days mixing up a fibreglass like mixture, pouring it into rubber moulds, opening them, grinding the base, cleaning them, painting and decorating and finally packing them. I was not on my own, an old friend became my partner and he suffered with me, until he gave up and sold his share to a relation of mine, was trying to assist me. I made the statues into lamps, learned how to make marble tables and still found it almost impossible to get more than a bare living. Finally I managed to sell the business to one of my salesmen on time payment and for a year or so I was collecting petty amounts, until he also sold the business and I was paid.

 

Next I set myself up in business again, with the same tolerant partner and commenced to manufacture fluorescent lights which could be used in ordinary lamp fittings. Great idea but it took off slowly. It was at that time that I wanted to go to England to celebrate the 60^th wedding anniversary of my parents, whereas Joy was to go to New Zealand to look after her father, who was in the last stages of cancer. A week before my leaving I advertised my business in the Financial Review. At 9:30 that morning I had a telephone call enquiring, an hour later a Jaguar arrived with 4 business people from a well known company, we had a chat in my house, that afternoon an executive of their Melbourne factory flew in, we visited my factory and at 7 in the evening I was told that they will buy my business at the price advertised. I had not one other enquiry and the amount I quoted in the advertisement was a figure which I would have been happy to discount, had I been asked. Three or four days later I received my cheque, in time for me to take a taxi to the airport, where Joy left for Auckland and I left for London.

 

While she is with her family, her father passed away and with a heavy heart I celebrated my parent’s 60^th anniversary. As soon as possible I got back to  Sydney and two days later joined Joy in New Zealand, where I assisted by selling the family home, rebuilding my sister-in-laws house and moving my mother-in-law into that home. Unfortunately, she was by then suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and she will live and be looked after by her daughter for the next eight years. We all owe my sister-in-law a great amount of gratitude for selflessly taken up this duty.

 

I started again by importing car accessories from Taiwan and marketing them through a number of free lance salesmen. Since I had to go to Taiwan from time to time, I organized several business tours and took along some other business men to trade fairs in Hong King, Taipei, Seoul and Osaka. It was quite successful while the import business fluctuated and while some months it did really well, at other times it was not so good. Joy was worried and decided to take on a job herself in a government office and suggested that I should look for a steady job with a monthly income.

 

Being convinced that at an age of 51 nobody will offer me a job I applied for a likely position and to my eternal surprise I was invited to become General Manager of the bicycle division of a well known public company. The problem was that it was the Managing Director, who engaged me and when the Governing Dictator, (pardon me, I meant Director) returned from one of his frequent overseas trips, upon meeting me the first time asked the Managing Director if he found me in a geriatric hospital. He, who was a few years older than me, and I were not the best of mates, as can be deduced from his initial reaction. However, since the division commenced to produce substantial profits, he accepted me, although constantly niggled and criticized me, especially after I discovered my interest in small computers.

 

Another division of this company was importing Commodore computers and I borrowed one for a weekend, only to find that the programming language named BASIC was devised by John Kemeny,[4] a classmate and friend of mine. This only increased my curiosity and I learned about computing as much as I could. My interest and knowledge developed sufficiently for me to plan to open a computer shop as soon as my time with my company becomes intolerable.

 

In April 1981 I went to England to see my parents and while there my interest in computers was further increased. Also, while I was there my father had the first of his strokes. He died in July and on the 1^st November I opened the seventh computer shop in Sydney. Any computer shop these days would sell 8 to16 computers a day, but in 1981/82 I was mighty pleased when I managed to sell 4 computers per month and ecstatic, when one month I sold 20. In fact most of my time was taken up by trying to explain to people what computers can be used for.

 

I started out with a staff of 3, but noticed that they all sat in front of computers playing games, expecting me to see to the odd person who wandered into the shop. After just 3 weeks the staff was reduced to just one, namely me and this was the staffing arrangement during the next 6 years. Readers might ask, how I managed and I can assure them that provided one commences the day with an empty bladder and reduces the liquid intake to nil during the day, it is quite manageable. It might not improve the kidneys, but for just 6 years, the practice might not be too dangerous.

 

Due to a request from a client I wrote a software package for funeral directors and until a better one came on the market I was having a wonderful time supplying these specialized packages to undertakers, who promoted my software to each other. It became so popular, that I refused supply to any area other than Sydney and NSW. Funeral directors also purchased their equipment from me and in view of my not being able to leave my shop, it was they who came to me for training and learned how to set up their computers and printers. In retrospect, I can hardly believe that it was possible to this, it certainly would not work in the present service oriented environment.

 

Just before my lease had to be renewed, the landlord decided to double the rent and I decided to move out and conduct my business from home. As I was composing an advert for a last big sale of my stock, one of my suppliers asked me if I would consider selling my business to them. I answered positively and terms were agreed within a few minutes. He suggested that I have a look at his premises, where he was envisaging moving my business and after closing time I did so, telling him that in that location he will be bankrupt within the year. Not taking any notice of me, he moved the business and proved me wrong, since he was bankrupt within 7 months.

 

My agreement with the purchaser stipulated that I can approach all my old clients and I circularized all 600 of them, suggesting that they might engage me as their support guru under yearly contracts.  I had an unbelievable response and for the next 12 years I had my clients prepaying their annual retainers and me being available to support their computing. I finally retired in 2000 and concentrated looking after our shares, investments and the computers of my family and friends, not to mention the odd fleeting minute of cleaning the pool, I hardly ever use.

 

The past 44 years our family has not been idle either. Joy has found a lot of very good friends who substituted the families we left behind in England and New Zealand. Some became very close to us and sadly, we have lost a number of them at a relatively young age. We have also made lasting friends through our children whose parents and us are still keeping in touch, in spite of our children reaching the grown up stage and having become parents themselves.

 

The various health problems of Joy has brought us closer than ever. Some of these problems were life threatening, while other were just painful for her and required surgery. In 1994 Joy developed non-Hodkins lymphoma which went into remission for the next 7 years, but seems to be recurring again. She has a much reduced resistance to infections these days, necessitating five separate stays in hospital with pneumonia during the past 3 years. In spite of this litany of illnesses, she is healthy and full of vigor and humor, belying her 74 years. She does some first class cooking, not just for us, but for our dinner parties, does most of the gardening and until recently did all the household cleaning as well. After almost 50 years of marriage we can still amuse each other and can induce laughter during our togetherness. 

 

Joy loves classical music and few are the times during the day when the sounds of Beethoven or Wagner don’t waft in the vicinity of wherever she might be. She and until recently I too were frequent visitors to concerts, but I gave some up lately. For the past 25 years we were subscribers to the ballet and for 15 years to the Opera season as well.

 

We had some marvelous trips together, not only to Europe and one unforgettable trip to USA, but also in Australia, which has a lot to offer for tourists.  The sight of Uluru will never be surprised in it majesty, but when in Europe or America, we try to soak up the “kultura” and visit galleries and arrange to see Operas, ballet performances and concerts.

 

In addition of being subscribers to the Opera season in the Sydney Opera House, we spent 8 days in Adelaide for Wagner’s Ring, an unforgettable experience we hope to replicate in Melbourne for another Wagner opera. These days opera in Australia is very high grade and it is interesting to note that whenever we are overseas we see that major parts are sung by our Australian artists.

 

Our children, now in their late 40’s still give us pride and pleasure and we are happy to share our love with our in-laws. They both have become successful in their chosen professions and they both lead a happy family life. Their happiness is catching and it gives us great pleasure to see their love towards their respective spouses. My daughter has a daughter and a son and late in life and after consideration by her whole family adopted a baby who suffers from Down’s Syndrome, with all the extra work and responsibility a handicapped child requires. At the same time she is working as a social worker in one of the worst areas of Sydney.

 

My son and his wife have three girls and recently, their fourth turned out to be a boy. It will be upto young William to propagate the family name I chose in 1951 by continuing the family I founded! I cannot say that I established much of a tradition and in any case, I will be pleased if my descendants have a more steady employment experience then I had. However, what I hope that all my offspring and their children and descendants will live in an era when there will be less strife in the World and also that they will all be satisfied, with whatever they achieve.

 

This then brings me just about upto date (October 2001). However, I cannot conclude my saga without thanking my love for becoming my wife and being such a fantastic partner to me during the years which may not have been always easy for her to endure. She never wavered in her loyalty to me and while I do not claim to have been as good a husband as she was a wife to me, I always loved and adored her and still do. Without my Joy I would not be the man I am to-day, without her I would have missed out on a lot of pleasure in life, without her I would not have the type of children and even grandchildren I have, all of whom I am proud to have and enjoy.

 

Thus I finish, by thanking her and acknowledging the love I received from her and also from my parents and our children and their families and thanking luck for allowing me to survive the war years, so that I can enjoy life to the fullest. For someone, who was to die in 1944, what a beautiful way to spend the next 57 years! Looking at a family photo, where all 13 of us are together, there is no better way to declare: 

 

Look everybody, I am a winner.

I regret to add that on 26th January 2002, my much beloved wife, Joy, passed away after a long illness, which she bore without a single complaint, preserving her dignity and good humour at all times to the last moment of her wonderful life.

 

 

 

For pages re my 2nd Marriage

 

Click here.