Martin de Wolff, who died in November 2008, aged 90, was one of CAFCA’s bedrock members. They are our core support. He was a member from 1993 until his death and he always included a donation with his membership renewal. Despite not joining until he was in his mid 70s, he was an enthusiastic member, becoming a regular at our Annual General Meetings until old age finally caught up with him. He always attended any CAFCA meeting or activity in Christchurch. In fact, he was so keen that when he was 90, just a few months before his death, he rang me (the only time he ever did so) to check if his membership was still current and I assured him that it was. From 1994 until 2008 he made a donation at least once a year, sometimes more than once, to the CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account which provides my income (the total was in the high hundreds).

I only ever knew Martin as a CAFCA member (and a most valued one at that). In the days when we operated a phone tree to inform our Christchurch members of upcoming events and meetings, he was on my section of it and, being of a generation that is not into answerphones, I could always guarantee getting to speak to him and we’d have a good old yarn about the state of the country and the world. Over the years I’ve spoken at the Canterbury WEA plenty of times and he was a regular attendee at those. Indeed he was a stalwart of the WEA. But, as with so many of our members, I never knew anything about his life or about him personally. For information about that I am indebted to his daughter, Corinna de Wolff, of Wellington, who informed me of his death and who sent the following brief summary of her father’s life.

“Martin was born in Den Haag ( The Hague) on May 29, 1918. His parents were Jakobus and Martha. Jakobus worked in the merchant navy and later became a Royal postman, he was 50 when Martin was born; it was his second marriage. He was a very kind man, always concerned for the underdog and it was probably from him that Martin got his socialist ideals. He (Martin) enjoyed school and did well excelling at mathematics. Later he studied to become an electrical engineer. During the war he was enslaved by the Nazis. Although ‘enslaved’ sounds terrible, in fact he said it wasn’t too bad; they worked in a factory in Germany and slept in barracks. The Germans weren’t cruel to them as they would have been to Jews or Gypsies. Dad said many of them were socialists. After the war he moved to Den Helder and worked for the Navy. He married Cora in 1950; she already had a daughter, Iris, from a previous marriage. Cora was involved with the Resistance during the war. He went on to have a son Mark and daughter, Corinna. Mark died in 1994.

A New Life In New Zealand

“In 1961 they migrated to New Zealand. Martin was finding it hard to get promoted in Holland due to being an atheist. Where Dad worked all the management were Catholics and he wasn’t in that ‘club’ being an atheist and married to a divorcee! Holland certainly isn’t like that now; it is probably one of the most liberal societies in the world. Holland was crowded and poor after the war and assisted immigration benefited both countries. Martin found work within days of arriving in New Zealand at TL Jones Ltd where he was quickly promoted to supervisor of electricians. Dad never had a bad word to say about New Zealand, he got work quickly and as his English was good, even before he arrived, I assume he fitted in easily. A lot of Dutch people came to New Zealand to make their fortunes but Martin wasn’t like that at all. I once commented that he would have been much better off financially if he had stayed in Holland, where within a decade they had to bring in workers, and he was cross that I would even suggest such a thing. For him happiness was not about accumulating wealth.

“After Martin retired he broadened his interests too, from gardening and reading. He did a lot of WEA courses, mostly of a political nature. He supported many organisations including CAFCA, Trade Aid (he worked in one of their shops), Greenpeace and the anti-nuclear movement. He was an ardent Labour Party supporter, later moving to support the Progressive Party. He liked sports too, in particular soccer was a life long passion; he played in goal as a boy and also played basketball and boxed. In New Zealand he became interested in cricket and later he and Cora became Crusaders fans. He is survived by two children and four grandchildren”.

Martin, 90 is a bloody good age and you made the most of your long life. We only ever knew you as an old man but you were one of our most valued members, the kind that constitute the core of our support. It was a privilege to know you, rest in peace.

Death In The Family:
Connie Summers

CAFCA extends our condolences to our members John, Llew and Bronwen Summers for the death of their mother, Connie Summers, who died in Christchurch in December 2008, aged 89. The Summers family has had a long association with CAFCA. Connie’s late husband, John Summers, described by the Christchurch Star as a “literary legend”, was a member for years (see Murray Horton’s obituary of him in Watchdog 75, April 1994). Connie herself was a member, briefly, in the 90s.

Connie Jones, as she was then, holds a special place in the history of the New Zealand peace movement, namely that she was the only woman imprisoned in World War 2 for pacifist offences. The best recent history on this subject is Russell Campbell’s excellent 2005 documentary “Sedition : The Suppression Of Dissent In World War 2 New Zealand”. Contact Russell at Russell.Campbell@vuw.ac.nz for details. The following is an extract from the eulogy at her funeral, delivered by her daughter, Bronwen.

“ Constance May Jones – or Connie as she has always been called – was born on the 1 st March 1919. She was the second youngest, the third daughter of four, and the last surviving member of the ten children born to Lilian and Ernest Jones. None of us here today can remember her mother, as she died in 1939, before any of us were born. However we can remember her father, Ernie, who had a big impact on her life and beliefs. He was an ardent socialist and would bike from Oxford to Christchurch and back again in order to attend political meetings.

“She was born in Oxford where her father had also been born, while her mother came from Ashburton. Both families were of English/Welsh ancestry – and of peasant stock as she was fond of asserting. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Christchurch – Halswell Road – just a kilometre or two from where she died – appropriate for her who was very much a homebody, and proud of the fact that she’d never been outside of New Zealand.

“The family was poor, but this never featured particularly in her reminiscences. However her father’s large garden, both vegetable and ornamental did – and she inherited a love of gardening from her parents. She also, of course, inherited many other qualities, including her principles, and her Protestant work ethic – both of which she has passed on to her children. She went to Spreydon School and for three years to secondary school at West Christchurch, as Hagley was called at that time. She learnt the piano briefly – and got a medal, and won a knitting prize for a two-tone scarf, which has recently been retrieved from her extensive archives and admired, in a Christchurch-wide competition.

“At 13 she joined the Socialist Guild of Youth and went to meetings every Sunday, and by 15 she was a committed pacifist and remained so for her entire life. At first she was a Humanist Pacifist as her father was an agnostic, but she became involved in the Baptist, and then the Methodist Church and joined both the No More War Movement and the Christian Pacifist Society.

Prison

“In 1939 when she was 20 she went to Wellington and boarded with prominent pacifist Archie Barrington for about three months, returning to Christchurch just before her mother died. She often talked about how she came back to organise her mother’s funeral. When she returned to Wellington she boarded with the Reverend Ormond Burton, another very prominent pacifist, and had a variety of jobs as work was hard to get. She worked at the Centennial Exhibition, but of course, it being war time, the exhibition was a big flop. She also worked for an importer of German-made pharmaceutical display stands, and lastly and most successfully, as a ledger-keeper for Turners and Growers.

“1941 was a defining year for her. Two years into the war, freedom of speech, the right of dissent, had been curtailed in the interests of the war. Christian pacifists who tried to influence public opinion were arrested – yet on Friday nights, week after week, activists climbed on their soap boxes and spoke for peace. And so it came to her turn. She climbed on the box – a young constable pleaded with her not to do it. She managed a few words : ‘The Lord Jesus Christ tells us to love one another…’ Chief Inspector CW Lopdell, the Wellington Police chief, arrested her. She was charged with obstruction under the emergency regulations and was given a three month sentence which she served at the Point Halswell Reformatory. She said that the work wasn’t hard, but the food was poor. She was locked up for 14 hours a day without a toilet. During the day time she worked in the hard land of the prison garden and froze in her thin prison clothes. She recalled the matron of the reformatory saying to her ‘I suppose, Constance, you won’t sew the uniforms for the Army’. And we can hear her firm reply ‘certainly not’ – as that would have been helping with the war effort.

“After prison she returned to Christchurch in August and by late September had married Dad – and yes, I think it’s generally well known that she did the proposing. It was an extraordinary marriage, built, so they said, on faith – which gave rise to the name of their first born. Faith was born in 1942 just before Dad went overseas as a medical orderly (John Summers was also a peace activist. Ed). She flatted in Hereford St until he came back in 1945 when they moved to Hororata where he worked in a saw mill (theyhad seven kids. Ed).

“In 1958 they went into business, setting up in a bookshop in Chancery Lane. They subsequently moved to Manchester Street and finally to Tuam Street. Dad always said that Mum was the brains of the business and tempered his otherwise rash decision-making tendencies. Mum always worked in the shop – in early days, taking the bus home around 2pm in order to get the dinners ready.

“In 1968 they moved to the Domain Terrace house. Throughout all this time a wide variety of artists, poets and writers visited them at home – often staying for meals and talking late into the night. They were also collecting art works, always purchased very inexpensively through their friendship with artists who were still establishing their reputations such as Colin McCahon, Toss Woollaston, Tony Fomison* and others. Thousands of books also made their way home. Regular outings were made to art show openings, and concerts – Mum was particularly appreciative of women singers such as de los Angeles, Schwarzkopf and Mahalia Jackson. They also saw Paul Robeson in concert – being a big fan not only of his singing, but his social conscience. The bookshop was finally closed in 1983 when Mum was 64. Once she had more time, Mum spent a lot of it in her garden, which gave her a lot of pleasure. * Murray Horton’s obituary of Tony Fomison is in Watchdog 63, April 1990. Ed.

Arrested Five Times During 81 Springbok Tour

“Also during this time there were social issues to be involved in – the Vietnam War was a prominent one – and both Mum and Dad took part in many demonstrations. She hit her stride again in 1981, during the Springbok Tour, when they participated in many demonstrations, and in the course of which she was arrested five times. As a consequence of explaining to the judge her long-held beliefs, she was discharged without conviction on all charges. Well the judges weren’t stupid were they!

“Although intensely political, and a keen listener to Parliament when it was sitting, she did not join any political party because they all believed in the necessity for a defence force. She was proud of not voting for winners in elections – commenting quite recently that her father had never voted for a winner in any election. To her it was more important to vote for the one she most believed in – regardless of their likelihood of getting into Parliament. During the (2008) election there were two billboards on her fence – one for the Greens, the other for the Alliance. In earlier years the New Labour Party put up their billboards, until Jim Anderton became persona non grata and was sent the inevitable letter!

“No overview of her life would be complete without a word or two about her principles. And to quote from Mum herself : ‘when I have a conviction, it’s very strong, it’s not something I drop by the wayside. Being arrested has nothing to do with bravery. We have certain temperaments we’re given. I have the background of my grandmother and my father, who gave me these strengths’. And then referring to her marriage to Dad, she said : ‘He thought I was malleable. After we were married, he thought it was the biggest joke of his life. The only woman jailed, as I was, malleable!’” .