I was born in 1903 in Eskvale Street, Dunedin, and then we shifted to St Clair where my father was a saddler and a collar-maker. He was brought up on a Signal Hill dairy farm after his family had emigrated from Scotland. In 1909 my father's uncle died and left Dad an estate in Scotland. That year we left to take over the estate but it wasn't a very profitable business. The estate was 45 miles out of Aberdeen and right in the Highlands near Glenlevit. The winters were terrible; the ditches and waterways would be smothered over with ice and snow and you could sledge over them. My mother had always wanted to get back to New Zealand. In 1914 they decided to sell off some of the stock and return to New Zealand. But then the war started, and it was impossible to return. We finally managed to come back in 1921 when I was about 18.1 then took up work on my uncle's farm which was at Popotunoa. about 14 miles out of Clinton, near the Blue Mountains. I got a job driving a six-horse team, ploughing 64 acres of stubble.
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