Douglas Buchan 1921 - 2017
Remembering Douglas Buchan 1921 - 2017. Husband of Dulcie Low.
Douglas Buchan, our father, was the second of the eight children of Charles and Ann Buchan. In the family’s early days Grandad was an engineer at the freezing works in Wairoa, on the East Coast and this was where Dad was born in 1921.
The family shifted to Dunedin - first to Sawyers Bay and later to Maori Hill. For three months during the Depression, Grandad was without work with six children to support. For a period he was given relief work at the Botanical Gardens in Dunedin where he helped construct the stone walls that still exist today. In 1932 when Dad was eleven years of age, Grandad found work at the Finegand Freezing Works in Balclutha. The family moved to a house in Rierery St and Dad and his siblings attended school in Balclutha.
Dad collected many prizes while at school, including several for needle-work. Much against his will, the family’s economic circumstances required him to leave school and home at the age of fifteen years and undertake an apprenticeship with Tom Carruth in Omakau. During this period he helped to build Blacks Hotel in Ophir and the Omakau Hotel. He supplemented his income by shooting rabbits in the weekend and I think he said once that he made more from selling their skins than he did from carpentry!
Dad left for the Second World War in 1942 and served in Egypt and Italy until December 1943 when he was captured in Italy and taken by train on a cattle wagon to Munich in the middle of winter – a long and bitter journey. After 18 months he was released from the POW camp in May 1945 and sent back to England where he travelled up to Scotland and spent several weeks with relations in Peterhead. Later, he returned to NZ by ship with other returning soldiers.
Dad met Mum (who was then Dulcie Low) one evening in 1946 at the home of Mum’s best friend Joyce Callahan. Joyce was engaged (soon to be married) to Doug’s younger brother Ian at the time. Mum and Dad married in September that year in Balclutha and after a honeymoon in Queenstown, they settled in Alexandra. For the first year they lived with Dad’s uncle and aunts; Maggie Burgess and Jack and Agnes Buchan until Dad had built their own home in Finlay St. Dad worked as a carpenter and joiner in Alexandra and became well known in the district for his fine craftsmanship.
All six of us children were born in Clyde (Dunstan) hospital. In descending order – Jeanette, Dianne, Ian, Glenn (who died eight years ago), Alistair and Catherine. We all agree that nothing can compare to being raised in a little town beneath the Raggedy Range. Childhood memories of roses, fruit trees in blossom, rocks and summer fruit, hoar frosts and autumn colours and the smell of thyme and sun-baked mud on the banks of the Manuherikia.
After 17 years in Alexandra the family moved to the Cardrona Valley where for two years Dad and Mum worked as the married couple on the Wairou Station (owned by John Lee who introduced ski-fields and tourism to the Cardrona Valley). When John married, the family moved to Kaka Point where Dad became a carpenter at the Finegand Freezing Works where 35 years earlier his father had been employed. Mum became the Kaka Point Post Mistress for a number of years. Both served for a period on the Kaka Point Town Board (at different times) and on the Volunteer Fire Brigade. Both were also members of the Kaka Point Bowling Club for several years – mum showing a fierce competitiveness which surprised us all!
Tragedy hit the family in October 1984 when Mum, who had been the life and soul of the family and had brought energy and friendship to the various communities in which she lived, died of a brain tumour. Her passing is still keenly felt but for her children and grandchildren, she left behind a legacy of wonderful memories and solid family values.
Both Dad and Mum had a great love of gardening and music which they passed on to their off-spring. Our garden in Alexandra won the garden competition three years in a row. After Mum’s death, Dad moved from the big house to the cottage next door and began the challenging task of taming a clay bank lashed by the easterly winds, to form a wonderland of rhododendrons. As with everything he did, it was achieved with perfection – aided by the installation of a mist irrigator which could be operated with a switch by his bed.
Somewhat reluctantly, Dad celebrated his 90th birthday at the Rosebank Lodge in 2011 surrounded by his immediate and extended family. About that time his health began to deteriorate significantly and he stopped going out for long walks along the beach practicing his golf shots as he had done only a few years before.
He died on the 12th February, just a week before the Buchan family reunion in Dunedin. He was in his 96th year and died peacefully in his home at Kaka Point.
Diane Buchan,