Dear all,
Thank you for your continued support. Please find below a statement from the Thompson family with regards to this redevelopment proposal.
Statement prepared by great nieces and nephew of Roy (Tarby) Thompson
"ROY BENJAFIELD THOMPSON (known as "Tarby") was born in Auckland to Ernest Dornford Thompson and Blanche Marie Thompson (nee Benjafield) in 1907 and died in 1979. He gained his nickname whilst serving in Egypt with the New Zealand Army for several years (Thompson, Roy Benjafield - T.R.B. - known as Tarby). He was the youngest of 8 siblings, his father had been the Post Master at Avondale Post Office from 1912 to 1921 and was very well known and respected in the area. The family lived in a large house at 69 Bolton Street, Blockhouse Bay. Our uncle and mother grew up in that house, children of his next oldest sister, Julia.
In 1933, his first wife Jean Thompson (nee Parkinson), passed away and in 1959, he married his second wife, Hilda Aprha lnglay. He then served in Egypt for several years in the New Zealand Army and returned to New Zealand somewhat unsettled from what he had witnessed during that time. His marriage to Hilda disintegrated and they divorced. He then married again but that union was short lived.
He was a bit of a 'diamond in the rough' but with a heart of gold. Despite his outward appearance, he was a kind person underneath and he would do anything for you if he was able. His exploits are legendary within the family. He crossed the seas to Australia often, stowing away in the hold of ships with his beloved motorbike. He had a racehorse called Freezing Point which was apt because it never won anything. He was friends with Barry Crump. Maurice Shadbolt lived next door as a child and used to hang out with Mum and her brother.
He was the most colourful family member in an already colourful family. However, he died alone in an unkempt house, newspapers stacked against the walls for warmth, no electricity and with windows broken by local louts. Despite this, and totally in line with his generous nature, he gifted land to the Auckland City Council for pensioner housing. He was really happy when he had donated the land for local elderly people he knew in the area who had worked hard all their lives but could not afford a retirement place of their own. A brass plaque on the site reads as follows:
"IN MEMORY
IN MEMORY OF HIS LATE WIFE HILDA THOMPSON AND PARENTS BLANCHE AND ERNEST THOMPSON, ROY BENJAFIELD THOMPSON PRESENTS THE LAND ON WHICH THESE FLATS ARE SITED TO THE AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL AS A GIFT TO BE EMPLOYED EXPRESSLY FOR PROVIDING HOUSING FOR SENIOR CITIZENS OF AUCKLAND"
If the last nine words in that statement are not clear enough, we don't know what would be required to make the intention of this gift any more obvious! There is no end date. He clearly gifted his land to the Auckland City Council for pensioner housing, nothing else. He would be turning in his grave right now if he was aware of the disingenuous deceit of the Council in selling to a third party whose profit making intentions are clearly directly at odds with the original gift.
We, as family to Tarby, object in the strongest terms to the proposed misuse of the land that was gifted in perpetuity to Auckland City Council for the express purpose of providing pensioner housing to the people of Auckland, a rare resource and one which will become more and more necessary with the ageing population of New Zealand.
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Family statement is obtained by local resident Benji Nathan