78yo searching for old college mate who moved to NZ 50 years ago

College friends Joan Wescott (nee Marks), Jill Bennett and Rita Norris attended Chelsea College of Physical Education in Eastbourne, Sussex, in the 1950s. Photo / Supplied

More than 50 years have gone by since the days she played tennis with friends and enjoyed good times at college.

But 78-year-old Joan Wescott, nee Marks, still fondly remembers those times and often wonders about whatever happened to one of her dearest friends, Rita.

"We're trying to hunt around for those who have been lost. Several of us have died, but I don't know about Rita.

"We were quite close friends and I just wanted to know, really, if she was still about."

Wescott, who lives in the UK, has put out an appeal in the hope to reconnect with her old friend Rita Norris, who moved to New Zealand about 50 years ago.

A recent college reunion had encouraged Wescott to actively seek out her old friend, after years of wondering how life had panned out for her.

"I know for a fact that she moved to New Zealand some time in the 1960s and I haven't heard from her since - and nobody else has either."

Joan Wescott (nee Marks), 78, is looking for old college friend, Rita Norris, who moved to NZ in the early 1960s.

Not long after Wescott married, she and her husband had been in London and bumped into Norris, who told them she was going to New Zealand. "But I don't know whether she stayed, whether she went to different countries or if she came home.

"I don't know anything except that she was a teacher of physical education. But whether she taught here or in New Zealand, I don't know."

Wescott said as far as she knew, her friend had not married before travelling to New Zealand.

She knew that Norris had been born and raised in a suburb in London and had attended the Chelsea College of Physical Education in Eastbourne, Sussex, from 1956 to 1959.

Both women trained to be PE teachers.

"We've had these reunions and there are several of us that were at college during that time who we've lost - they've moved away and nobody knows where and nobody's got their address.

"And because Rita's such a good friend of mine, I kind of thought: 'Well, I'm going to find her'."

Wescott went on to have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She has continued to lead a very active lifestyle after teaching phys-ed for many years.

She said she only hoped to reconnect with her dear friend after all these years.

"It'd just be nice to say hello'."