Remembering
RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016
25
Memorial seat a lasting reminder of wartime love story Dion Crooks Chance brought Gowan Bruce and Bam Banbury together as they hunkered down in a blackout at Godley Head during World War 2. They were among the near-3000 people stationed along the eastern Port Hills, overlooking the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour, which was seen as a prime prospect for a Japanese invasion That was in 1942. They married in 1944, Bam died, aged 76, in 1999 and Gowan at 90 in 2015. Their ashes were scattered at sea at Lyttelton Heads. And in January this year, their family, with Department of Conservation blessing, erected a seat atop Godley Head in their memory. In her family memoir, Gowan recalled how she ended up next to a group of sailors in the blackout. She had met one of them before, and he introduced her to Bam. Her family remembers her joking it was just well it was dark and she couldn’t see that Bam was a sailor, otherwise she might not have given him a second glance. Sccording to the fashionable eligibility pecking order of the day, young women rated the air force
lads the elite, then came the superior types of the army, and the navy blokes were the pits. After being rejected by the army, Albert Banbury (known as Bam) joined the New Zealand division of the Royal Navy (he was an international yachtsman). He started in HMNZS Philomel (the ship) in March 1941, and left New Zealand on July 22, 1941 to serve in the Eastern Fleet. He was on the cruiser HMS Cornwell for a short time, then was posted to Singapore on the Pingo-Wo, an ex-Hong Kong ferry for patrol duty. After the fall of Singapore Ping-Wo sailed to Batavia, Jakarta, and towed the Australian destroyer HMAS Vendetta (which had been undergoing a refit in Singapore and her main engines were not operational) to Australia. He transferred to the merchant ship Islander, which took over the towing for the final leg of the journey from Fremantle to Melbourne. In Melbourne he “hitched” an unofficial lift to New Zealand on the armed merchant cruiser HMNZS Monowai. Back home on May 2, 1942, he discovered he had been reported missing. As he said, back in Australia, he was probably labelled as a deserter.
Craig (left), Ross (centre) and Bruce Banbury at their parents’ memorial seat at Godley Head. Their sister., Anne, was taking the photo. Another brother, Grant, was absent. They believe this is the only memorial seat on the Port Hills.
He was posted to Godley Head as a signalman, then transferred to Fiji on January 8, 1944. Gowan worked with the radar, and the day after Bam left for Fiji, she was one of three women on duty inside when the radar shack, which sat on the cliff edge, was blown over just before midnight by a Canterbury nor-wester. Luckily it fell sideways onto land instead of down to the rocks below. The three clambered out and sought help from some sailors who were shocked to discover that women were part of the army. In fact, Godley Head was a mix of gunners, naval personnel, WAACs and Home Guard. Gowan’s father was a warrant officer in the southern military district and spent some time at Godley. But they came up with hot chocolate to calm the trio down. In the meantime, the next shift arrived for duty, found the shack on its side and no sign of anybody, and raised the alarm. The three WAACs were kept in hospital for a couple of days and a court of enquiry followed but nothing came from it, despite one officer saying he had always maintained that the shack should have been tied down more securely. There were also alarms when a suspected
Far left: Bam and Gowan on their wedding day in Christchurch in September 1944. Left: Army girl Gowan in uniform as she cleans up after dinner.
al-defence base enemy landings from Lyttelton as far north as the Waimakariri River mouth. Landings further south were not considered feasible because of the steep rocky beaches. The guns were about 400 feet above sea level and capable of reaching the Waimakiri mouth, 19 miles away, in 37 seconds. The guns were fired regularly in training. But they were not involved in an accident in 1939 when the examination battery in Lyttelton Harbour sank the fishing boat Dolphin, killing its skipper, Fred Brasell. Although he was an experienced fisherman, he could not read Morse and the warnings not to sail his boat any closer were not understood. A misdirected warning shot hit the boat. As press censoring had not yet been brought in, Christchurch’s Star-Sun newspaper published the entire proceedings. In 1942, when the Japanese threat was at its most intense, Godley Head’s task changed from protecting Lyttelton Harbour to defending
submarine in the harbour turned out to be a whale, and when the inter-island ferry Rangitira (with passengers on board) appeared under the cliffs one foggy night. And Gowan mentions free cigarettes, sitting around the campfire at Godley Head at nights, women sewing (someone got a needle through the ear on one occasion), and her small group of radar operators who became lifelong friends. Camaraderie and a strong sense of community have been mentioned by others stationed at Godley. The recreation room was the heart of this community...a daily gathering place. There were regular dances, concerts and films, and although there was no wet canteen, the camp was by no means dry. Sports teams from Godley took part in local competitions. Food was reported to be good and plentiful, and regular leave was allowed with transpoort supplied to and from Sumner. However, it didn’t pay to miss the tram from the city to Sumner as this meant missing the leave truck and an expensive taxi ride. Bam and Gowan became engaged and were married when he returned from Fiji – on September 12, 1944. “We hardly knew each other,” Gowan writes in her memoir. “But that was how things went in those days as we never knew the war would last.” Gowan left the army in 1944. Bam was discharged from the navy in April 1946.
This gun emplacement remains above the cliffs on Godley Head.
Christchurch and North Canterbury from potential invasion. The Lyttelton Fortress area, which initially covered the area from Mt Pleasant to Godley Head, became a hive of activity. Territorial and Home Guard forces were called up, and at the height of invasion fear, nearly 3000 troops were in the area, with 450 manning the Godley Battery alone. A growing ‘manpower’ problem led to the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), which took over many of the technical and administrative tasks at Godley Head. The New Zealand military regarded the beaches of Christchurch and Auckland as the most likely
spots for an invasion. The Lyttelton Fortress area, including Sumner beach, was ringed with wire entanglements, anti-tank ditches, pillboxes and infantry trenches. These defences also spread along the full length of the New Brighton beach as far as the Waimakariri River mouth. Many troops were in Sumner where the army took over several public buildings and sep up camp in the grounds of Van Asch School for the Deaf (where the displaced Redcliffs Primary School is now based). Construction of the battery began in 1938. More than a dozen concrete buildings and more than double that number of wooden structures
were erected in the battery area. The two main messes, the quartermaster’s store and all the fighting buildings remain. The battery used an advanced system of partially automated sighting and calculating, designed to aim the guns at their targets. This electro-mechanical system was the ‘computer’ of its day. The Japanese never stormed Canterbury beaches, but the Germans did come. German files captured at the end of the war in Europe showed that the small rider auxiliary Adjutant laid 10 magnetic mines in the Lyttelton Heads in June 1940. The mines have never been found.