Mrs HE Pether [Pethes]

This portrait is of Mrs Kathleen Pether (1920-1995) and her four-year-old daughter Maureen who was born in Shanghai on 18 October 1940.

Kathleen was born in Port Chalmers, Dunedin, but spent much of her early life living in East Asia with her parents, Nobby and Annie Clark. While living in Shanghai in 1940, she met and married Harold Pether, an Englishman who worked at C.C. Wakefield & Co (now known as Castrol Oil). Not long after their wedding, the couple moved to Singapore to get away from the advancing Japanese army.

Singapore, however, did not turn out to be the answer. When the Japanese invaded Malaya, Harold arranged passage back to New Zealand for Katheen and Maureen in December 1941. Katheen's mother, Annie was evacuated from Singapore the following year on the HMS 'Scott Harley'. After the fall of Singapore, Harold  and Kathleen's father became civilian internees and were held at Changi Prison and subequently Sime Road Camp. 

During this unsettling time Annie, Kathleen and Maureen lived together in Dunedin. It is thought that these photographs were taken during a visit to Lower Hutt to see an uncle.

Kathleen, Maureen and Harold were were reunited in 1946. They resettled in Singapore, where Harold took on the role as General Manager of South East Asia Castrol. They lived in Singapore until 1957, when they returned to New Zealand.