Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 2, 2018 12:43:31 GMT 12
There's a good radio interview here with Warne Pearse, the brother of Richard Pearse, from 1959. I found it interesting in that he paints a bit more of a likeable picture of Richard, or Dick as he called him. Many things seem to make out he was aloof, secretive, very distant from his family, and also plain nuts. But I did not get this impression so much from his brother. Whilst they talk about Richard's aeroplanes and his attempts at flight, no effort is made at all to pinpoint any dates, which is probably a good thing as that is such a vague area. Also Warne never mentions any success in the attempts. But it's really worth a listen.
www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=223620
One thing that I picked up on was Warne mentions "After he came back from the war". I was a bit taken aback as I had no idea he'd served in WWI. So I looked up Archway and sure enough his Army service records are there. Richard volunteered and joined up in 1917 and the age of 39. His record is sad reading, one early letter from a medical officer paints the 6 foot sheep farmer as big, strong, florid, and used to walking long distance up and down hills on his Milton sheep farm. However he went to England, and while training at Sling Camp he suffered badly from after effects of typhoid that he'd had seven years before. By 1918 he is described in his medical notes as "poorly developed, very grey and given impression of being older than his years. He has not the strength nor the physiche to work as a soldier. Slight irregularity of heart on exertion."
Other comments in the noted are "Seven years ago had typhoid fever. Has never been able to do hard work since, Has found military training too much for him." "... pain in stomach often. Slow movements, some deafness. Poorly developed. Dull aspect. Unsteady in gait. Managed to fall over on turning with eyes shut. Knee jerks increased." It carried on but the doc's writing is too hard to read. And too depressing.
I tend to wonder if the depression and mental illness that saw him spend time later in life in Sunnyside Hospital may have been more an after effect of his war service than anything from before then, and perhaps the so-called madness he is famous to have suffered from came later in life than his aeroplane experiments. It seems from what Warne says he taught himself engineering and was pretty good at it. It's a shame with his interest in aeroplanes and engineering that he;d not transferred to the RFC once he'd gotten to Britain.
www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=223620
One thing that I picked up on was Warne mentions "After he came back from the war". I was a bit taken aback as I had no idea he'd served in WWI. So I looked up Archway and sure enough his Army service records are there. Richard volunteered and joined up in 1917 and the age of 39. His record is sad reading, one early letter from a medical officer paints the 6 foot sheep farmer as big, strong, florid, and used to walking long distance up and down hills on his Milton sheep farm. However he went to England, and while training at Sling Camp he suffered badly from after effects of typhoid that he'd had seven years before. By 1918 he is described in his medical notes as "poorly developed, very grey and given impression of being older than his years. He has not the strength nor the physiche to work as a soldier. Slight irregularity of heart on exertion."
Other comments in the noted are "Seven years ago had typhoid fever. Has never been able to do hard work since, Has found military training too much for him." "... pain in stomach often. Slow movements, some deafness. Poorly developed. Dull aspect. Unsteady in gait. Managed to fall over on turning with eyes shut. Knee jerks increased." It carried on but the doc's writing is too hard to read. And too depressing.
I tend to wonder if the depression and mental illness that saw him spend time later in life in Sunnyside Hospital may have been more an after effect of his war service than anything from before then, and perhaps the so-called madness he is famous to have suffered from came later in life than his aeroplane experiments. It seems from what Warne says he taught himself engineering and was pretty good at it. It's a shame with his interest in aeroplanes and engineering that he;d not transferred to the RFC once he'd gotten to Britain.