Sailors look for bodies in the ruins of Napier's Masonic Hotel in February 1931 . Photo / Supplied
Sailors look for bodies in the ruins of Napier's Masonic Hotel in February 1931 . Photo / Supplied
One of Napier's most prominent buildings to succumb to the February 3, 1931, Hawke's Bay earthquake was the Masonic Hotel.
The photo shows sailors doing body recoveries at the Masonic Hotel.
One of the employees of the hotel, a barman, David Evans, died trying to escape the building.
A family story is told that his sister-in-law Gert Begley went with his son, Noel, about three days after the earthquake to try and find him. Sailors helped and located his body under the rubble.
His wife Mary sought damages of £1000 (2021: $129,000) plus funeral expenses against the New Masonic Limited.
In order to apply the law of the time, the judge asked, was David in the course of his employment when he was killed?
Michael Fowler
The hotel argued he was not and were not liable for any compensation as his duties were confined to the bar, and at possibly at times, other parts of the hotel – but none outside of the hotel building on the pavement.
A witness, Albert Griffin, said he was drinking in the bar when the earthquake occurred. He said the manager called out "Nothing can stand up to this. Outside everybody."
Albert Griffin and David Evans reached the street door simultaneously, and his recollection was he fell or was thrust to the right, and David to the left. While Albert was struck by a falling fragment of the building, David was buried under a large amount of falling debris.
The court held David was acting within the course of his employment when he attempted to escape, and his dependants were entitled to compensation.
David Evans was a returned soldier, who served during World War I.
Another barman, 35-year-old Leo Alphonsus Kyle, also made his way out of the Masonic Hotel, with the licensee, but the licensee survived, and Leo was killed by a falling wall. David Cross, also a barman, was killed.
Like fellow barman David Evans, Leo Kyle had also served in World War I. He left Hastings in September 1915 to serve with the Ambulance Corp.
In 1916 he was dangerously ill with cerebral meningitis in a Cairo hospital but recovered, sending his parents a cable telling them he was "Happy as Larry".
In 2018, a Frenchman, Pierre Commeine, came across a photo postcard of Leo Kyle in uniform taken in 1916 (as shown). On the back of the postcard was written "For Suzanne". It is not known who Suzanne is, but possibly a girlfriend back in Hastings.
Pierre was attracted to the postcard, especially as his mother's name was Suzanne.
Not knowing too much about Leo, except his date and place of birth given in military archives, he wrote a novel about Leo, using facts about the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in France.
Upon announcing the release of the novel on Facebook, he learned Leo had passed away on February 3, 1931 in the Hawke's Bay earthquake.
Pierre was moved that the central character in his novel had survived the terrible battles as part of the Medical Corp, but was killed in an earthquake.
While writing the novel, the photo of Leo sat on his writing desk, and in a letter to Neil Barber and Craig Hay, owners of the Art Deco Masonic Hotel, Pierre said:
"While writing this novel, I spent a very long time with Leo Kyle, whose photo I looked at very regularly. Over the days he had become as if he were living by my side. To learn of his death came as a shock to me, especially as he was buried in a mass grave.
"I wanted to share this information with you and your fellow citizens. I know the New Zealanders are very attached to the memory of their soldiers who fell on French soil as well as to the victims of the earthquake of February 3, 1931."
- Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory
