Arthur Lagden Haylock was born in Akaroa in March 1860. His parents Charles Lagden and Sarah Haylock had arrived in Akaroa almost exactly 10 years earlier in the Monarch – the first English settler ship to arrive in Canterbury, eight months before the Canterbury Association’s “First Four Ships”.
Arthur was their only child, though Charles Lagden Haylock had five sons with his first wife who had died in 1842. Sadly, Charles Lagden Haylock died only a few months after Arthur’s birth.
Arthur Lagden Haylock was fascinated by the sea throughout his life and became a noted expert on New Zealand shipwrecks. He was also a capable artist. In addition to ships and coastal scenes he painted and sketched around New Zealand and on his visits to England. An extensive collection of his works is in the National Library.
Arthur’s career began as a 17 year old trainee surveyor in Timaru. While there he joined the Timaru Rocket Brigade, which helped rescue ships in difficulty. The Brigade would fire lines over vessels, which once secured could be used to haul people ashore. Their bravery, in an 1882 storm during which two ships foundered in Caroline Bay and several rescue boats were swamped leading to the loss of nine lives, is remembered in a public memorial in Timaru.
Arthur Lagden Haylock married Eleanor Rosa Allen in 1892 and they went on honeymoon to England. Shortly after, Arthur was transferred by the Land & Survey Department to Wellington where he spent the rest his career in a senior role.
Arthur and Eleanor Haylock had three children. Arthur Wellington Haylock was born on his mother’s 30th birthday in 1895. Greta Haylock was born in 1898 and lived in Wellington for most of her 82 years. There was also an unnamed baby who died at birth or shortly after, with mother Eleanor also dying at the same time. Both mother and baby were buried in Karori Cemetery.
While Arthur remarried in 1903, there were no further children.
In 1914, Arthur Lagden Haylock completed the first resurvey of Wellington since the 1840s. He realised there were two landscape features without names. As his daughter Greta recorded: “With a mischievous sense of humour he named the Arthur’s Nose in Lyall Bay for my brother, and Greta Point in Evans Bay for myself.”
There was more family tragedy when Arthur Wellington Haylock was killed in action in WW1. While his name is on his parent’s headstone, he is buried in France. Arthur Lagden Haylock also outlived his second wife Annie who died in 1929. There is uncertainty about just where Arthur Lagden Haylock is buried as his second wife was buried in Levin and his name is also on her headstone and the Horowhenua District Council Cemetery website records his body in that cemetery. However, it is likely he is buried in Karori as Greta (who never married and had no children) was his only living descendant and it is likely she wanted him buried in Wellington alongside her mother.
By John Haylock – Arthur Lagden Haylock’s great-great-nephew
Plot: *Ch Eng/L/37
More of Arthur’s artwork can be seen at DigitalNZ:
https://digitalnz.org/records?text=arthur+lagden+haylock#
