The brothers from Brooklyn

Tokerau Beach man Ivan Conlon knows a good deal about his father Arthur and uncle Elmer, but many gaps remain to be filled. And some of the questions concerning Elmer are whoppers.

The brothers were born in Brooklyn, New York, Elmer on September 24, 1888. Some time prior to 1906 he joined the US Navy, as an able seaman aboard the battleship "Louisiana".

The "Great White Fleet" of which she was a part sailed into Auckland Harbour in August 1908, and remained there for eight days, during which time Elmer apparently jumped ship, leaving Auckland immediately and heading for Herekino.

Ivan doesn't know why his uncle abandoned the States for life in a new, relatively undeveloped country, although he did have two uncles, a great aunt and a great uncle in New Zealand. And maybe he didn't have much to stay for in New York.

He had lost his father when he was 14 and his mother five years later. A younger sister died following a fall when she was a toddler, and a brother died at 18 in a train accident, reducing his American family to a sister and his younger brother Arthur.

Elmer took up residence at Herekino with William Beecher Baker and his wife Katherine Joan (nee Mason). He later married one of their daughters, Ethel Winifred. They registered three children - Edwin Elmer, Richard Manfred (Fred) and Edna Amelia Katherine - at the Kaitaia Post Office.

William Baker's occupations were recorded as pit sawyer, school teacher and naval officer, raising the prospect that he and Elmer had met in the Navy, and that Elmer's arrival at Herekino may have been pre-arranged.

Elmer later took work with the Public Works Department at Herekino, until he enlisted with the Army, prior to which he had become a naturalised British subject.

By the time war broke out Elmer's brother Arthur had also immigrated, in more conventional fashion, and had settled at Herekino. Both volunteered to join the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, both serving as riflemen.

Elmer would be awarded the DCM and the Croix de Guerre (Belgium), the citation for the former stating that he had carried out his duties "with an unflagging devotion worthy of the highest praise, and has displayed much gallantry and determination when in charge of carrying parties, working under heavy fire over rough and hilly country".

His nephew Ivan suspected that working on the hill country of Herekino had played a part in developing his physical capacity.

The Croix de Guerre was awarded for the courage he had shown in single-handedly capturing and disarming a German machine gun post. He was also mentioned in despatches, in the presence of King George, at Windsor Castle.

Before the war ended he had reached the rank of warrant officer, and served for a time as a sergeant major.

The family reunited at Herekino after the war, but Elmer spent the last 30 years of his life in Hamilton, where he and Arthur served in the Home Guard from 1940 to 1944.

Elmer died in 1951, at the age of 62.

Meanwhile, Arthur's war ended at the Somme, where he suffered shrapnel wounds and a broken leg. He was hospitalised in London, where his leg was amputated.

He had arrived at Herekino 15 months before enlisting, and returned there briefly after the war. He died in Auckland on January 2, 1979.

Any members of the Baker family who would like to contact Ivan Conlon are welcome to do so at 44 Marrienne Place, Tokerau Beach, RD3 Kaitaia 0483, phone (09) 838-6283 or (021) 160-4648.