6. Claude Harold Annesley and his marriage to Aileen Dorothy Waters in Hamilton New Zealand

Aileen Dorothy Waters was born in 1894.  She married in 1915, Athol Alfred Hooper Hitchcock.

Athol Alfred Hooper Hitchcock was the only son of the Rev Alfred Jerred Hitchcock and his wife Minnie Eliza Hooper.  He was born in 1884.

The Rev Alfred and his family travelled to Australia, in 1886 and he died in 1889 at Singleton. He was the curate at All Saints Cathedral in Singleton.

 His death was reported in the New Zealand and Australian papers. He died of heart failure aged 32.

In 1964 the Public Trustee office of New Zealand was searching for any of his relatives.

Athol and his mother returned to New Zealand and they lived in the Bay of Islands Region of North Island in New Zealand.  He was a farmer.

Like so many men of the times, Athol joined the New Zealand  Army Reserves listing his address as Te Waphu, Russell in the Bay of Islands.  It really is a beautiful place, but in 1916, the land was covered with mangroves.

According to the census records in 1919 he was a poultry farmer.


1923 Athol was the Secretary of the Annual Regatta to be held at Russell, and advertised in the papers of Friday 28th December 1923

Aileen was living with Athol and his mother Minnie Eliza Hitchcock in 1935 and in 1938.

In 1944 Aileen sues for divorce for desertion.

In 1949 Athol was still living with his mother, and she died in 1950.
He died in 1961.

Perhaps it was his death that sparked the hunt for the relations of his father.

From the New Zealand Birth Marriages and Deaths Records

1958/26478	Annesley	Aileen Dorothy		63Y
1961/25991	Annesley	Claude Harold		78Y

Aileen died on 20th June 1958, and was cremated.  Her ashes were scattered at the Auckland Cemetery.

Claude Harold Annesley died 18th April 1961 at the Hamilton hospital, and was cremated.  His ashes were scattered at the Auckland Cemetery.


From the facts an overview of his life in New Zealand can best be described.

• Arrival in New Zealand July 1928 from Sydney
• Between July 1928 and 1935 no records available
• He was employed in the dairy industry as a herd tester
• Between 1936 and 1946 he has a wife called Dorothy Joy Annesley but no records can be found for anyone of this name
• In 1941 he is recorded as a Lieutenant with the New Zealand Military
• By 1949 he has married Aileen Dorothy Waters, however he was still married to Katie Isobel Jillett.
• Between 1949 and 1957 they lived near her family members in North Road Clevedon.
• Aileen died in 1958
• Claude died in 1961.

After death comes the legal requirements of finalising an estate.

Claude was no different, he had a will, and it was through that will that more information was obtained.


He arrived in Australia in 1903, and he died in New Zealand in 1961, yet at no time could a birth certificate be located, nor could any records associated with his 3 years service in the Boer War.

In fact the only record at all that his family held about him, was stored within the Family keepsakes belonging to Katie's mother, Catherine.

The snippet clearly shows the details of a member of the Annesley family who was to be married in London.  That must have been very important for them to keep it along with the notice of Claude and Katie's wedding.

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