From Constable to Gregory
Main heading:
THE CONSTABLE–GREGORY FAMILY
Our paternal family story begins with the Constable name. My father was born a Constable and later changed his surname to Gregory. From that point, Gregory became the family name carried forward by his descendants. This archive preserves both parts of that story, recognising the Constable ancestry from which we came and the Gregory name under which later generations of our whānau have lived.
From Constable to Gregory
Our paternal family story begins with the Constable name. My father was born a Constable and later changed his surname to Gregory. From that point, Gregory became the family name carried forward by his descendants.
This is the story of both names: the Constable ancestry from which we came, and the Gregory family that grew from it in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Constable Origins
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The Story Before Gregory
Before Gregory became our family name, there was Constable.
Our paternal ancestry takes us back to England, including connections with West Malling in Kent. The Constable name belongs to the generations who came before us and forms an important part of understanding where our Gregory family story began.
Their lives, families and journeys eventually became part of a much wider story that would cross the world to Aotearoa New Zealand.
OUR CONSTABLE ANCESTRY
From England to New Zealand
Born into the Constable family in England, my father's early life eventually led him to the Royal Navy. As a young man he trained at HMS Ganges before serving aboard HMS Endeavour.
In 1936, HMS Endeavour brought him to New Zealand. It was a journey that would change the direction of his life and, ultimately, the story of the generations who followed him.
According to the story passed down through our family, when HMS Endeavour reached Auckland, he made the decision to leave the ship and remain in New Zealand. Whatever lay behind that decision, New Zealand became his home and the beginning of a new chapter in our family story.
A JOURNEY TO AOTEAROA
Constable Becomes Gregory
At some point after coming to New Zealand, my father changed his surname from Constable to Gregory. The selection of name Gregory is not known
This change marks an important point in our family history. The Constable name connects us with the generations who came before him, while Gregory became the surname carried forward by our branch of the family in Aotearoa.
Both names therefore belong within our whakapapa. Understanding the transition from Constable to Gregory helps ensure that the earlier generations are not lost simply because the family name changed.
A NEW FAMILY NAME
Papakura and the Second World War
Before the Second World War, my father made his home in Papakura, south of Auckland. New Zealand was becoming his home and Papakura formed an important part of his early life in this country.
The Second World War interrupted that new life. He served overseas, was wounded during the war, and eventually returned home to New Zealand.
After returning, he went back to Papakura. His wartime experiences became another chapter in a life that had already taken him from England across the world to Aotearoa.
WAR AND HOMECOMING
From Papakura to Palmerston North
After the war and his return to Papakura, my father moved to Palmerston North to study at Massey College.
His studies were directed towards agriculture and the life he intended to build after his wartime service, including farming and poultry farming. Palmerston North therefore became another important place in the Constable-Gregory journey, connecting his wartime generation with the family life that followed.
BUILDING A LIFE AFTER THE WAR
From Soldier to Farmer
Returning from war meant beginning again. After his wartime service and recovery, my father turned his attention towards building a life in New Zealand.
His move to Palmerston North and study at Massey College reflected that new direction. Agriculture offered a pathway into civilian life, with farming and poultry farming becoming part of the future he was preparing for.
This period represents an important transition in his story: from sailor and serviceman to student, farmer and, eventually, the father of the Gregory family that followed.
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A NEW CHAPTER
A Dance at Massey College
While studying at Massey College, my father attended a college dance. It was there that he met the woman who would become my mother.
My father's wartime injuries still affected his ability to walk. Mum noticed that he was having difficulty and, as she later recalled, initially felt sorry for him. That simple moment of kindness became the beginning of something neither of them could have anticipated.
They dated a couple of times while Dad was completing his studies. After graduating, he returned to Papakura, and it might easily have ended there. Instead, about a month later, the telephone rang.
TWO LIVES MEET
We Have to Get Married
About a month after Dad returned to Papakura, he telephoned Mum with some rather urgent news: they had to get married immediately.
When Mum came off the telephone and told her parents, their natural question was why there was suddenly such a hurry. Was she pregnant?
No.
Dad had secured a sharemilking job, and one of the requirements was that he be married.
With very little time to organise anything, a wedding in Auckland was quickly arranged.
AN UNEXPECTED TELEPHONE CALL
A Wedding, the Races and a Missing Taxi
Mum and her parents travelled by train to Auckland the day before the wedding and stayed at a local hotel. Mum was to be married wearing her mother's borrowed wedding dress.
A taxi had been arranged to collect them from the hotel and take them to the church. But on the wedding day there was horse racing at Ponsonby, and the expected taxi never arrived.
With time running out, Mum, dressed in her mother's wedding gown, and her parents set off for the church on foot.
They arrived late.
The minister had a christening scheduled immediately after the wedding, so the ceremony itself had to be hurried along.
It wasn't an elaborate beginning. There had been a rushed engagement, a train journey, a borrowed wedding dress, a missing taxi, a walk through Auckland and a minister watching the clock.
And thus began their married life together.
