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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Meet the Webster 11: Siblings, aged 56 to 80, reunite for the seventh time ever in Tauranga

Samantha Motion
By Samantha Motion
Regional Content Leader·Bay of Plenty Times·
22 Oct, 2018 04:00 PM3 mins to read

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Eleven siblings, aged 56 to 80, gathered in Tauranga for a Labour Weekend reunion.

The year before the youngest of the 11 Webster siblings was born in 1962, the contraceptive pill arrived in New Zealand.

Coincidence?

By all accounts their mum - who was not Catholic, by the way - just loved babies, so it's debatable.

But then again, almost everything is up for debate when you have 10 brothers and sisters.

That much was clear when the Bay of Plenty Times visited the Webster 11 in Tauranga over Labour Weekend.

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Less clear were answers to questions such as; what was the largest number of you at home at one time?

Answer: Anywhere from six to nine, depending on whose memory you trust.

The 11 Webster siblings: Back, left to right; Allan, Stephen, and Colin (Les); front, left to right; Raewyn, Catherine, Elaine, Nola, Ailsa, Susan, Jocelyn, and Delwyn. Photo/Andrew Warner
The 11 Webster siblings: Back, left to right; Allan, Stephen, and Colin (Les); front, left to right; Raewyn, Catherine, Elaine, Nola, Ailsa, Susan, Jocelyn, and Delwyn. Photo/Andrew Warner

How many bedrooms did the family home in Hamilton have?

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Answer: Depends on when you were born. It started with three but their parents kept having to add more or repurpose other rooms.

Everyone agreed there was only ever one toilet and one bath - no shower though - and that it was a source of many arguments and much door-banging during their youths.

It was a busy, noisy, happy scene as the siblings, whose ages span 25 years, hashed out their versions of the family history over drinks and entrees, ahead of a weekend of reunion activities.

It was just the seventh time the whole tribe, now aged between 56 and 80, had been in one place at one time.

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The six previous reunions of the eleven Webster siblings. Photo/supplied
The six previous reunions of the eleven Webster siblings. Photo/supplied

The first time was in 1972, by which time the youngest, Stephen Webster, was 9. The time before this was 2015.

By the time he was born, he was already an uncle to nine nieces and nephews.

That number has since swollen, with 93 total grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

Add the 11 siblings, and a 12th - a sister, sadly stillborn - and the population footprint of their parents, William (Roy) Webster and Jean Lomas, reaches 105.

Some of the siblings understood their parents initially wanted three boys and three girls.

They had a girl, then two boys, then an unbroken run of seven girls - no multiple births - before Stephen came along.

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"I always had kids to look after," said Nola Vickers, the eldest sibling.

Nola and Stephen, along with Jocelyn Webster and Catherine Ross, who fall somewhere in the middle, were all living in Tauranga.

Webster 11

Combined ages: 746
Age span: 80 to 56
Living in Australia: 6
Living in New Zealand: 5
Living in Tauranga: 4

Population footprint

Mum: Jean Lomas, 1920-1995
Dad: William (Roy) Webster, 1917-2012
Their descendants: 105
Children: 12 (one daughter was stillborn)
Grandchildren: 25
Great-grandchildren: 49
Great-great-grandchildren: 19

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