Madoline Evans' family

Madoline Evans was born to Frank George Evans and his wife Hannah nee Rhodes on 29 June 1883. She was Alister's great grandmother, marrying his great grandfather Herbert Bertram in 1912.  Madoline probably met Herbert as she was a registered nurse and he was a doctor.  

Archdeacon Frank George Evans

Madoline's parents, Frank George Evan and Hannah Rhodes married on 12 April 1882 at Bishop's Court, Parnell, Auckland.  They were married by the Bishop of Auckland, assisted by Rev. B.Y. Ashwell.  

Together, Frank and Hannah had six children:


29 June 1883 Madoline Marie Evans.  In 1912, she married Dr Herbert Bertram.  Madoline died in 1975.
1885 Hilda Beatrice Evans.  Hilda never married and died in 1952 at the age of 67.
1887 Charles George James Granville Evans.  Charles never married and died in 1907 at the age of 20.
1888 Florence Edith Redman Evans m 1914 John McGregor Scott (1885 - 1930).  Florence died in 1966.
1891 Isabel Mabel Rhoda Evans m 1921 Arthur Alexander McKinnon (1862 - 1950).  
1894 Helen Marian Clara Evans died 1895 aged 6 months


Frank was Archdeacon at several churches - at the parish of St George's in Thames from March 1884 to July 1889.  Coincidentally, he succeeded Rev William Calder (who had been there from 1881 to 1884) at this parish - William's grandson Matthew was one day to marry Frank's granddaughter Joan and they were to become Alister's grandparents!  He then retired from that parish to take on the Te Aroha parish, where he stayed for a further seven years.


Hannah Evans died 1894 aged 37.  It seems likely that she died either giving birth to, or soon after the birth of youngest daughter, Helen.  The death was reported in the Auckland Star on 30 July 1894.

Our Te Aroha correspondent telegraphed to-day :—" Quite a gloom is cast over this district by the sudden and unexpected death of Mrs Evans, wife of the Rev. F. G. Evans, of St. Mark's Church. The Revs. T. A. Joughin and Mr W. Elliott, Wesleyan ministers, officiated in St. Mark's Church yesterday, which is quite unique in our ecclesiastical history. The funeral service will be conducted in the church by Archdeacon Willis, of Cambridge, at 2 o'clock to-morrow (Tuesday). Expressions of sympathy are being sent to the bereaved family from all parts of the province."


Baby Helen died early in 1895.

Around 1896, Frank appears to have headed with his family to New Plymouth.  
Frank George Evans married Mary Louisa Govett on 1898.  Their marriage was noted in the Hawera & Normanby Star on 1 November 1898.

TELEGRAMS.

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) New Plymouth, November 1. At St. Mary's Church this morning, Rev. F. G. Evans, vicar of the parish, was married to Miss Govett, daughter of Archdeacon Govett. The service was fully choral, and the church was beautifully decorated. 

Madoline must have had a good relationship with her stepmother - she is recorded as often returning to New Plymouth to visit her "parents" - not something she would have done had she held any disdain towards her step-mother.  For example the Evening Post records on 8 March 1937:





Frank's second wife Mary died in 1943.  Frank himself died on 9 November 1947 at the age of 90, and is buried at the Te Henui Cemetery in Taranaki.  His last address has been recorded as 23 Rogan Street, New Plymouth - this is where he and Mary had lived together - a beautiful large, imposing home.  More about Archdeacon Evans to come.


Frank was born in Cheshire West in the sub district of the Chester Cathedral in 1857.  Mary was slightly older, having been born in 1853.  

Joan Katherine Calder nee Bertram

Joan Katherine Bertram was the second eldest daughter of Herbert and Madoline Bertram.  She was Alister's much loved maternal grandmother and was born on 15 October 1914.  Joan married Matthew Calder in 1943.  


The Evening Post copy of 16 February 1943 records:

TOPICS for WOMEN

CLERGYMAN WEDS

HUNTSMEN IN FULL REGALIA ATTEND

A wedding unique in the annals of the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty Hunt Club took place at St. Luke's Anglican Church, Rotorua, last week, when Miss Joan Bertram, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Bertram, Rotorua, was married to the Rev. Matthew Lewis Calder, second son of the Rev. Jasper Calder M.B.E., and Mrs. Calder, of the Auckland City Mission. 

The bride has been an enthusiastic follower of the hunt and her father has been master of the hunt ever since its inception. In accordance with hunting traditions, she was, therefore, granted the privilege of an official hunt wedding, and the bridegroom, who is a member of the Cambridge Hunt Club, was himself in hunting costume, while a large number of huntsmen in full regalia formed a mounted guard of honour, complete with hounds, as the couple left the church after the ceremony. The bride and bridegroom will make their home in Napier, where Mr. Calder has been appointed to the Napier Cathedral.

Joan and Matthew went on to have three children - two daughters and a son.

Here is a photograph from around 1930, from the New Zealand Museums website showing Joan on a hunt with her father, Herbert leading.

Rotorua Hunt Club - moving north Otonga Road near junction with Devon Street, front left Dr Bertram, front right Thomas Jackson, behind in order Fred Smith (Whip), Mrs Hazel Martin, Miss J Bertram, Mrs R Copeland-Smith, Mrs O'Connell

Herbert Bertram

Nathaniel Simon Herbert Bertram was born on 30 July 1879, the youngest child of James and Christina Bertram.  He was known as "Herbert". Herbert was Alister's maternal grandfather and he was a bit of a 'character'.  There is a lot to tell based on various records - Herbert was intelligent (he obtained a medical degree and a chemistry degree from Glasgow University), obstinate and opinionated.  Here is some of the information I've collected about him, but there is much more to follow.


Herbert's father James Bertram died in 1883, when Herbert would have been no more than four years of age.  Herbert was obviously an intelligent child and excelled academically.   As early as 1888, he was attending Wanganui Boys' School and was being recognised as excelling at arithmetic.  (Wanganui Chronicle 24 December 1888)
The Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11457, 13 February 1892, on Page 2 records that Herbert won an award for his work the previous year while in Standard VI at the Wanganui Boys' School

PRESENTATION OF SCHOOL PRIZES.

The presentation of prizes for the work of 1891 took place at the Girls' and Boys' Schools yesterday. Mr Spurdle (chairman) and Mr Macfarlane, members of the local School Committee were present, and at Mr Spurdle's request the prizes were presanted by Mr Carson, Chairman of the Education Board. In both cases, we understand, the prizes were gifts of the teachers and of friends of the schools. We give below the prize lists.

...Standard VI ... Herbert Bertram.

Months later, the Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 17, 28 July 1892, Page 3 reports an announcement by the Wanganui Education Board that a number of scholars, were to receive scholarships, including a 17 pound, 10 shilling scholarship to Herbert Bertram of Wanganui Boys' School. 


On 27 January 1902 it was reported from Dunedin that Herbert had passed the preliminary medical university examinations with two other students, G.J. Adams and M.M. Earle.  Herbert must have subsequently left NZ to attend Glasgow university.  On 19 July 1907 the Wanganui Chronicle reported:

News has been received that Mr. Herbert Bertram, who has been studying medicine at the Glasgow University, has completed his studies. He is leaving London by the S.S. Oruba for New Zealand at the end of the 'month. Dr. Bertram is a Wanganui boy, and his many friends will be glad to hear of his success.

The next report of him is in the Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XVIII, Issue 2331, 30 March 1908, Page 2


Rotorua Sanatorium

APPOINTMENT. OF MEDICAL OFFICER

[BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS AGENCY WELLINGTON this day 

It Is understood that Dr H. Bertram will be appointed assistant medical officer and house surgeon of the Rotorua Sanatorium.

In 1912, at the age of 33, Herbert married Madoline Marie Evans, daughter of Frank George Evans, and the Wanganui Chronicle reported on 16 April 1912:

At St. Mary's Church, New Plymouth, on Wednesday last, Dr. Herbert Bertram, of Rotorua, was married to Miss Madeline Evans, eldest daughter of Archdeacon Evans., of New Plymouth.

Madoline was a registered nurse, and for more information on her father, please look under the entry about her family.  

Herbert and Madoline would go on to have five children - four daughters and a son:


1. Mary Marion Bertram (28 August 1913 - 2007) married Mr Thomson (note the irony, that Mary's own great grandmother was named Marion Thomson...)


2. Joan Katherine Bertram (15 October 1914  - 26 April 2004) (Alister's grandmother) married Matthew Calder.  See more here.


3. Beatrice Betty Bertram (1916 - 1936).  Died aged 19 years.  


4. George Munro Bertram (5 October 1918 - January 2002, Rotorua) married Olivia May Bertram (1 June 1917 - 9 April 2007, Rotorua).


5. Erima Christina Bertram (14 September 1922 - 12 February 2008) married Brian Sefton Banks (19 March 1916 - 18 February 2008).  See separate post for the beautiful story from the NZ Herald of their love story.


Other than his medical work, Herbert was obviously interested in both horse racing and hunting.  In 1917, Herbert was elected an officer of the Rotorua Racing Club, being appointed "Honorary Surgeon." (Bay Of Plenty Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 6935, 9 November 1917, Page 4)

During World War One there was a scandal surrounding the call out of an Austrian doctor from an interment camp, which accounted for Herbert's resignation as a Caption in the Medical Corp - I will recount this fully later.  

Alister remembers his grandmother, Joan, talking about her father's affinity with the Maori people of Rotorua. A report in the Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1937, Page 8 records:

Welfare of Maori Race.  

In few hundred years the Maori race would be merged in the white race, but in the meantime his place in the community was an important national social question, said Dr. H. Bertram in an address to Auckland Rotarians. 

The average brain and mentality of the Maori were sufficiently high to carry excellent possibilities (reports an exchange). That he was readily assimilated by the white race was proved by many distinguished half castes. 

To achieve any improvement in the Maori, attention should be concentrated on those under twenty years of age, said the speaker. It was necessary that any reform of the Maori should begin with the children and through our educational system. The only hope for salvation for the adult Maori was to put him on the land and extend the present settlement scheme initiated by Sir Apirana Ngata. Dr. Bertram appealed to members to stand behind a movement to treat the welfare of the Maori race as a matter of urgent importance. 

His normal, opinionated self, Herbert managed to annoy the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, with his comments, as recorded in the Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 57, 5 September 1938, Page 11:


SPORTING

RACING AFFAIRS

COMMENT BY MINISTER

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

ROTORUA, This Day.

"The present position of racing from its different standpoints in New Zealand," stated the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, "does not call for any pessimistic note. The various racing clubs, in line with affairs generally in the Dominion today, have had and are still enjoying a buoyant time."

The remarks of the Minister were prompted by the recent opinion expressed by Dr. H. Bertram, president of the Rotorua Racing Club, that racing had reached its peak, and that there was a possibility of a decline setting in. "I think a better way to obtain an opinion on the position in racing today," added the Minister, "is to invite individual clubs to report. I am sure there will be no pessimistic note struck."

As he became older, Herbert was apparently injured while pursing his love of hunting - this is recorded in the Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 70, 20 September 1943, Page 6:


DOCTOR INJURED

STEEPLECHASE ACCIDENT

O.C. ROTORUA, Sept. 19. Severe head injuries were suffered by a well-known Rotorua medical practitioner, Dr. H. Bertram, at the annual /point-to-point meeting of the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty Hunt Club yesterday afternoon. Dr. Bertram, who is master of the hunt, was injured when his horse Highway struck the last fence in the second event of the day's programme. After receiving attention on the course he was taken to the Rotorua Hospital.