Alfred George Unwin was born on 24 September 1924 in Bow, East London, the first child of ship’s cook Alfred William Charles Unwin and showroom assistant Rosina Alice Smith.
When Alfred was less than a year old his father sailed to New Zealand where he became caught up in the 1925 British seamen’s strike and was imprisoned in Wellington’s Terrace Gaol. When Alfred’s mother learned of this she made the decision to emigrate.
Rosina and baby Alfred arrived in Auckland on the S S Hororata on 17 May 1926, two of 613 passengers whom newspaper articles termed “desirable immigrants” of a “superior type”, and the vessel’s captain called “the finest lot of immigrants” he had ever brought to New Zealand.
Once reunited, the family lived in Wanganui and Napier before settling in Wellington where Alfred’s sister Zeala Ross was born in 1927.
Alfred had just turned fifteen when the Second World War broke out. He enrolled in the Air Training Corps and then the RNZAF, where he was a Leading Aircraftman (groundcrew mechanic). Between 1946 and 1948 he served with the RNZAF’s 14th Squadron in J Force, the New Zealand contingent of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, assigned to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture to assist with patrols, surveillance, repatriation, and the maintenance of communication and supply links with New Zealand. Here Alfred witnessed first-hand the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He took a deep interest in Japanese culture and learned to make sake rice wine, which he later brewed at home in New Zealand.
Alfred was married to Anita Ethel Pearse and had two daughters, Loran Rosina and Susan Eileen. He lived in Lower Hutt where he worked as a storeman and parts manager at Todd Motors and pursued his interests of photography and all things automotive.
Alfred George Unwin passed away from heart failure in Lower Hutt on 12 September 1966, aged 41. His remains lie in Karori Cemetery’s Services Columbarium Wall, near those of his parents.
Plot: Soldiers Niche/DIV L1/26
by Jacqui Beets (niece)
Sources:
Ancestry.com
“Arawa’s Men March to Gaol.” Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 65, 14 September 1925, Page 6.
British Commonwealth Occupation Force – Wikipedia
“Desirable Immigrants.” Otago Witness, Issue 3767, 25 May 1926, Page 55.
“Hororata’s Immigrants: A Fine Party of Colonists.” Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 117, 18 May 1926, Page 10.
Main body of Jayforce lands in Japan | NZ History
Occupying Japan: the RNZAF and J-Force 1946-1948: Part 2 – Air Force Museum of New Zealand
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