"She was still sending Bert clothes and presents right up to when she died in 2010, aged 97."
Bert worked at a series of jobs before joining railways working in Wairarapa, including the Rimutaka Incline.
He was drafted into the army with his first tour of duty being to Fiji where he was stationed when Japan entered the war in late 1941, then serving in New Caledonia, Guadalcanal and Green Island.
Later he was in Egypt building bridges and undergoing training on mines before being shipped to Italy.
One of the legendary stories of the time was Bert Alloway's exploits while AWOL.
Caught without a leave pass by military police, Bert was put into a jeep to be taken back to headquarters.
He decided "to put on a performance" which caused the driver to lose control and the jeep crashed into a snow ditch.
His great niece said Bert was thrown into a cell with a wooden slat bed but that was far from the end of the story.
He charged the cell door and when confronted by guards put up a good fight until cracked over the head with a rifle butt.
Not only did he need several stitches to his head, his pay was docked and he ended up with 28 days in an army prison cell.
In the week World War II finished Bert and mates were in Austria as the Germans retreated and managed to "relieve" abandoned cars of their tyres, wheels and other extras.
They were then sold on the black market and the proceeds went into the "companies fund", a compensation for losing 28 pay while in jail.
Back home in New Zealand Bert and his brother Phil went building in the central North Island, building and extending shearing sheds.
In 1952 Phil Alloway and his wife Peg went farming just out of Martinborough and Bert later joined them, helping build sheds and yards.
He was to become the "cool Uncle" to Phil and Peg's children spoiling them with lollies, toys and comics and keeping them constantly entertained with tall tales of days gone by.
Bert Alloway is remembered by his family for four B words "beer, bachelor, birthdays and best storytelling".
He worked on Glenburn Station as a maintenance man and then went to work for the Camerons at Western Lake for many years, living in a duck shooter's bach and earning a reputation as a fantastic gardener with his speciality being growing tomatoes.
Later Bert moved into the Burling Flats in Featherston, with the family shifting his beloved glasshouse from Western Lake to his new abode.
There he created a huge vege garden keeping not only himself in vegetables but friends and neighbours also, and became well recognised around town as the man on a pushbike wearing a bright orange helmet.
Cycling was a great love of Bert's and in his heyday he travelled vast distances on his bike.
Bert was very creative and could make something from nothing, as the saying goes.
He crafted items for family and friends from other people's discarded rubbish.
Natasha Alloway said: "I think all the family have a flying wind duck or a sheep rattle made by Uncle Bert."
Bert Alloway loved birthdays and beer.
He was a regular at the Royal Hotel, Empire Hotel and the Featherston RSA Club.
A birthday meant "having a good lash" of his favourite brew and when Bert eventually moved to Greytown Lifecare he was bemused to find Happy Hour there did not involved half price beer, as it would in an hotel.
Lana Alloway soon fixed that though and Bert was taken to the workingmen's club once a week.
At his funeral service his wider family spoke of Bert Alloway as being a kind, carefree and gentle natured man "who had a beautiful smile and a real twinkle in his eye".
