Title: Octavius Hadfield

Author: Barbara Macmorran

Publication details: 1969, Wellington

Digital publication kindly authorised by: G. H. Macmorran

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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Octavius Hadfield

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Barbara Macmorran is a great-granddaughter of Octavius Hadfield, and granddaughter of his eldest son, Henry. Her childhood home was the farm looking over to Kapiti Island which is mentioned in the book as the one Henry Hadfield bought at Otaihanga. It is now part of the Paraparaumu area.

After five years at boarding school she worked in Wellington for two years before joining the W.A.A.F. during the war. Later she had eighteen months overseas, staying in South Africa for six months with a great-uncle, Henry Tuckey, also referred to in the book as one of Bessie Hadfield's brothers who went to the Boer war. From there she went to England and lived in London for some months.

Her interest in great-grandfather Octavius began after her marriage when she decided to sort through two old boxes of letters and papers which had sat for many years at one end of the farmhouse verandah. These provided the backbone of the book, and also provided the Alexander Turnbull Library with a selection of very interesting original letters.

Barbara Macmorran is married to a Wellington accountant and has a teenage daughter, Janet, and son, Duncan.